The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Rangpur

The cold wave situation deteriorated as the mercury dipped further continues at most places in the country's northern region during the past 24 hours affecting the normal life for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, official said.

The severity of winter cold still remains within tolerable limits as the sun remained visible throughout the day today without fog in the air since the morning to evening in the sub-Himalayan region.

However, the situation started deteriorating from the evening forcing the common people to stay indoors when the thinner layers of fog started covering the air side by side with comparatively stronger blowing winds from the north and northwestern directions.

The normal activities, including vehicular movements, navigation and railway traffics, however, remained mostly unaffected during the daytime as the visibility was normal throughout the day yesterday except on Tuesday night in the river basins.

Meanwhile, the district and upazila administrations have further intensified distribution of blankets and warm clothes in all 16 northern districts after getting government allocations of 4,000 pieces blankets for every district, officials said.

The Relief and Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management has allocated the blankets for distribution among the distressed, poor and cold hit people in the region.

Met Office sources said both the maximum and the minimum temperatures had little changes at all six monitoring points in the northern region during the last 24 hours.

The Met Office recorded the minimum temperatures of 11.2 degrees Celsius at Rangpur, 10.9 degrees at Dinajpur, 11.2 degrees at Syedpur, 9.2 degrees at Iswardi, 11.6 degrees at Bogra and 9.4 degrees at Rajshahi on Wednesday morning. The country's lowest temperature of 8.5 degrees Celsius was recorded on Wednesday morning at Chuadanga, the sources said.

Reports reaching here from the remote areas said that sufferings of the people living in sandy char villages in greater Rangpur, Jamalpur, Bogra and Sirajganj districts on the Brahmaputra basin mounted but still remained tolerable despite blowing cooler winds.

The Met Office sources said the situation might remain mostly unchanged during the next 24 hours in the region, as the cold wave with chilly wind could continue sweeping the region.

In addition to 4,000 blankets, we are also distributing more 11,150 pieces warm clothes allocated by the Prime Minister's Relief Fund for Rangpur, District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer of Rangpur Mokhlesur Rahman told BSS yesterday.

Besides, dozens of NGOs, voluntary and social organizations and affluent people have already intensified the distribution of warm clothes among the cold- hit distressed people, he said.

Similar reports were received here from Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Joypurhat, Naogaon and other adjoining northern districts.