Tobacco a hospital crop

The Civil Surgeon of Bangladesh’s Nilphamari district, Ranjit Kumar Barman, has said that he will take action against the ‘unlawful’ tobacco farming taking place on land belonging to a leprosy hospital, according to a story by EAM Asaduzzaman for The Daily Star.

According to the story, the tobacco was being grown on a ‘large chunk’ of land that is ‘right around the corner’ from the 20-bed hospital compound located in Notkhana village, Nilphamari Sadar upazila (sub-district).

Asaduzzaman said that the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) had seemed to be oblivious to the fact that tobacco was being grown on the land of a hospital owned and operated by the DGHS.

And asked whether the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) could play a role in stopping tobacco farming, DAE deputy director Abul Kashem Azad said it observed World Tobacco-free Day on May 31 every year to create awareness of the harm tobacco caused to human health and the environment.

When asked why the hospital authorities were allowing the tobacco farm on its property, Dr. Khorshed Alam, a consultant at the hospital, said he did not have any authority over the matter and that the civil surgeon’s office had been notified of it.

However, Barman said that before being alerted by Asaduzzaman he had been unaware of the tobacco farming taking place at the government-run Leprosy Hospital in Nilphamari.