GAIBANDHA: Horse-drawn carriage is the only reliable vehicle for thousands of char people under Saghata upazila in Gainbandha district.
Various rabi crops including maize, wheat, almonds, sweet pumpkin, chilli, wheat, china, kaun and linseed are grown during dry season after recession of flood water. The char people mostly depend on agriculture.
They produce surplus greens in the rabi season but they cannot send the agricultural produce to distant areas due to shortage of connecting roads.
Thousands of families living in the remote char areas face difficulties in transporting agr-based greens from the area to district headquarters.
During the monsoon season boat is the only means of transportation and in the dry season it is the horse-drawn carriage.
Surrounded by the river Jamuna the farmers of several areas of the upazila are to depend on horse-drawn carriages to send their children to schools, madrasha and colleges as there are no concrete roads.
Farmer Habibur Rahman of Gobindpur village under the upazila said, "Horse-drawn carriages are the only means of transportation in this vast char region."
Thousands of people of Kanaipara, Sipigaramara, Gobindpur, Haldia, North Dighalkandi, South Dighalkandi, Patilbari, Guabari and some other places of Saghata upazila are the worst suffers.
After harvesting these grains at home, they are sold in different markets of Saghata on the other side of the river using boats and horse-drawn carriages in the area but they don't get good price.
Amzad Hossain, who owns a horse-drawn carriage in Haldia Char, said horse-drawn carriages were his main source of income during the dry season. He earns Tk 400 to 500 every day from morning to evening. He runs a family of three with this income, he added.
Businessman Solaiman said no vehicles are there in the char areas except the horse-drawn cart, because there are no concrete roads.
