Cold weather affects public life in Rajshahi

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RAJSHAHI, Jan 7, 2020 (BSS)- Sufferings of low-income group people have been escalated more with mounting intensity of cold coupled with a mild-cold wave in the region.

Local sources said the people who dependent on manual labour are facing an awkward position because their efforts of searching work are being hindered by the natural calamity badly.

Local Met office sources said the intensity of cold is being experienced
more due to the reduction of gap between the lowest and highest temperature.

The office recorded the lowest temperature 10.1 degrees Celsius today
against the highest 19 degrees Celsius in Rajshahi escalating its cold
intensity.

Meanwhile, the life of the people living in the slums and chars on the
Ganges basin has become worse as they experience more cold biting than that
of the mainland.

Md Muniruzzaman, president of Rajshahi Chamber of Commerce and Industries,
said the unusual situation has been preventing people from going outside of
residences particularly in the morning and the evening.

The suffering of daily wage earners such as day labourers, rickshaw pullers
and farm labourers has intensified due to the cold.

The number of patients suffering from cough, fever, asthma and other acute
respiratory tract infections sharply increased at different hospitals
including Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) for the last couple of
days, said Dr Saiful Alam, deputy director of RMCH.

In addition to the sufferings of people, particularly the poor,
cultivation, especially potatoes, chilli and seedbed of Irri-Boro might be
affected if the situation prolongs, said Dev Dulal Dhali, additional deputy
director of the Department of Agriculture Extension.

Meanwhile, the district and upazila administrations, authorities,
organisations, public and private bodies and many NGOs have intensified
distribution of warm clothes among the distressed cold-hit people.