Freedom fighter Chan Miah yet to receive a govt house

Publish: 9:51 PM, September 16, 2021 | Update: 9:51 PM, September 16, 2021

Md. Mekail Mia, Kashiani upazila (Gopalganj) Correspondent
The movement for independence ended a long ago. People fought with their heart and soul to free this country from the Pakistani oppression. One of such strugglers is Chan Miah. But how the country is treating them today? To date, not a single government house has been allocated for the heroic freedom fighter Chan Mia Mollah. With the help of local people, he got a place in a government’s brick kiln. He built a hut there. That too is floating in the water today. No help matched his fate.

It has been reported that Md. Chann Mia Mollah, son of Jamir Uddin Mollah of Hatiyara village in Hatiyara union of Kashianiupazila, took part in the great liberation war in 1971 when the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman started to mobilize country’s people. He took part in the war at Jashore front and his hometown Bhatiapara after receiving training from India to liberate the country from the enemy.

At the end of the war, he did not get any work and finally started making a living by ferrying from village to village. He fell ill within a few days. At that time, he sold three decimals of land received from ancestral sources. He became landless. He leaned in to the old business again to support his family.
Helpless and helpless, this heroic freedom fighter came to KashianiUpazilaSadar. Fifteen or sixteen years ago, with the help of the local people, this freedom fighter, known as Chan Mia, got a place in the government abandoned Charpingalia brick kiln. He built a tin house there.

Although there is tin on the roof, it is fenced with jute sticks due to lack of money. Somehow, he and his wife started living with their three children in a government brick kiln. His two sons Md. HelalMollah and Al Amin now work as day laborers. He got his daughter Champamarried to a pickup driver. The boys spend the day with their families somehow. They are struggling to make ends meet. They do not have the opportunity to see their parents.

The freedom fighter somehow managed to run their small family with his wife Aleya Begum with allowance money. Heroic freedom fighter Chan Mia told this reporter, “We, the husband and wife need medicine worth Tk 4,000 per month.I went door to door for a piece of government land. I applied to the upazila administration many times but got no result.

Finally, four years ago, I bought a piece of land in my village Hatiyara with a loan of Tk 3 lakh from Sonali Bank in favor of the allowance. I have not been able to repay our loan yet. So, I could not make any house due to lack. No matter how many people I went to for a government house, there was no result.”

“I am living in a government place in a brick kiln. The place is low so the house is submerged in rain water. Didn’t get any kind of government help till now. Many ordinary people get houses officially. And I fought for the country at the risk of my own life!”