The shopping malls and makeshift shops across the country are crowded with people due to the Eid shopping rush but these are all like daydreams for the people in the haor areas, many of whom lost everything in flash floods that wreaked havoc with their lives and livelihoods last April.

‘Whom shall I tell my sad stories! I had planted Boro this year by taking loan from a local lender. But the flash flood ruined everything. Only Allah knows how my family members are passing days’, lamented Ekhlasuddin, a farmer hailing from Deola village of Sunamganj, reports UNB.

The story of Ekhlasuddin is a common refrain across the seven districts of north-eastern Bangladesh, where many farmers were left in despair after the flash floods destroyed their Boro crops - for the majority of the farmers in the region, the one crop of the year on which they depended to earn their livelihoods.

Upazila Parishad Chairman of Dharampasha, Abdul Motalib Khan, said he has written letters to the authorities concerned to take proper steps for providing all sorts of aid to these farmers.

He further said the government assistance they have received so far ‘is not enough’.

Drawing attention to the appalling conditions of the daily lives of flash flood-affected people, M Golam Jilani, headmaster of Chamordani High School, said, ‘There is no other option but providing government aid to save these farmers. Their damage is irreparable.’

With Eid expected to be celebrated across the country on Monday, the majority of the population can be seen approaching a festive mood, the feeling is one unfamiliar to the people of haor this year. Amid many sufferings, including food crisis, new clothes to celebrate Eid are an unaffordable luxury for the victim families here.