Presentation of the Core Committee Members and Project Leads

7 Mukti Working Committee members with 7 project coordinators and their team members presented their project activities in detail that are ongoing in Mukti Village. The projects that are currently running in Mukti gram are – Go Green, SIDBI (Small Industrial Bank of India) sponsored environment, Housing, Education, Health, MCDF (Mukti Community Development Fund) and SAM.

Go Green – Mukti Working Committee member Mr. Chittaranjan Halder presented the project. The project coordinators Mr. Rajat Mondal and Mr. Pintu Halder “Go Green” with their 25 team members were introduced to the villagers. He made the villagers aware of the importance of the greening project for Mukti. To protect the environment from environmental pollution and for the sake of the environment, Mukti has planted various flowers and fruit trees on the village roads and even in villagers’ houses. In need of clean air and oxygen, Mukti is planting trees on a large scale, which on the other hand will help in bringing rain. Three layers of plantations (mangroves, vetiver grass and then fruit trees) have been done to prevent the embankment from breaking. In the future, these embankments will protect the villagers from floods. He also cleared the confusion of the villagers that arose against Mukti’s “Food for Work” project.

Health – Mr. Debabrata Halder and Mr. Bijay Krishna Halder (Mukti Working Committee member) presented the Health project that is ongoing in Mukti Gram. Medical professional Mr. Barun Kayal and his other 2 team members were introduced. At Mukti Gram Clinic, people get good health services for only 15% of the cost of medicines. Ambulance and oxygen concentrator services are available at very low cost to the distressed villagers at the village clinic. Every month a doctor from the city hospital visits this clinic.

 

 

Education – The Education project was presented by Mr. Panchugopal Halder (Mukti Working Committee member). Mr. Biprodas Jatuya (Nagendrapur MSS coordinator) with other 5 co-workers introduced themselves. During the Covid pandemic when all schools were closed, Mukti continued the education of village children through support schools maintaining all Covid protocols. Mukti’s initiative did not allow the students to fall behind. Mukti runs Mukti Support Schools and Kishalaya Schools on very low fees so that economic constraints do not become a barrier to the education of village children. Students who wish to pursue higher education can avail of sponsorship opportunities through the Mukti TSS (Talented Student Sponsorship) program. Mukti through “Book Bank” supports the underprivileged students of Nagendrapur and Kankandighi GP with books.

Housing – Advisory / Working Committee member Mr. Palan Chandra Sarkar along with the project coordinator Mr. Gourisankar Mondal and his 5 other team members represented the Housing project. Mr. Sarkar emphasized on three issues related to the housing project and discussed those issues in detail.

At first, he told about the reason for constructing model houses. People in Sundarbans are forced to leave their homes and take shelter in flood centers during floods. Their property gets damaged or stolen as a result of being away from home for a long time. To protect them from this danger, Mukti is encouraging them to build some flood-tolerant houses so that they do not have to leave their houses during floods. Mukti is also helping them to build these houses.

His next topic of discussion was the purpose of building three model houses. Natural resources have been used to build the houses and the technology used has also been designed in such a way that the cost of building the houses will be less for the villagers.

At the end of his speech, he sought people’s cooperation to build houses. If both parties help each other jointly, the work of building the house can be completed smoothly. If the government-made housing scheme and Mukti model house plan can be linked together then it will be very easy to build well-structured model houses for the people of Sundarbans.

SIDBI Environment – Core Committee member Mr. Yasim Gazi explained the plantation work done by Mukti under SIDBI’s environmental project. Project coordinator Mr. Satyen Khatuya and his team presented that Mukti has planted dragon fruit plants, Vetiver and mangrove beside 7 km. river embankment of Purba Sridharpur.  4,000 poles were installed for the Dragon fruit plantation.

Agriculture- Mr. Subarna Kar ( Mukti Advisory / Working Committee member ) described the objectives of the SAM (Sustainable Agricultural Movement) project.  SAM project coordinator Mr. Sourabh Kayal with his 17 team members described their activities. Mr. Kar urged the farmers to adopt organic methods to produce non-toxic organic crops, to increase the productivity of the land by using organic fertilizers and insecticides and to reduce the use of underground drinking water by cultivating alternative vegetables or crops to Boro rice paddy.

 

MCDF – Purba Sridharpur MCDF advisory member Mr. Chittaranjan Halder and project coordinator Mr. Raghunath Bairagi presented the MCDF team and its objectives. 9 team members were introduced during the presentation.  He said love, being good and keeping good – if we can follow these three things then the goal of MCDF – to organize the backward neglected people and establish them, will be fulfilled. If we can love all people equally regardless of caste, religion, social status, or gender, if we try to be good, and if we can be selfless then we will meet our aim to serve more people and benefit them. The MCDF team has promised as they are currently working in 4-5 districts in the future they will expand their scope of work across West Bengal.