DM visits Udna & Kanakpur Villages to assess Vetiver Scheme

It is literary a red letter day to the inhabitants of Udna village which is circled by the river Mundeswari  causing enormous loss almost every year during the time of flood when they witness that District Magistrate Ms. Sripriya Rengarajan, IAS comes to their place very early in the morning with the Sub-divisional Magistrate of Arambagh Mr. Arindam Niyogi, WBCS (Exe) and Block Development Officer of Khanakul-l  Mr. Suprabhat Chatterjee, WBCS (Exe) to give a permanent solution to prevent soil erosion from the embankment of the said river. She arrives and  blows the whistle to start soil dressing activities enabling the embankment to get penetrated by Vetiver, the magic grass of Indian origin to hold the soil tightly against huge flow of water.

DM is entering in to Udna village

 In an address she requests the local people to come forward and help whole heartedly to bring it an absolute success to the Vetiver plantation programme which is reportedly implemented for the first time in the state of West Bengal for the protection of river embankment.  She further requests the workers to participate more in a number which will be ensured with by providing all possible amenities as admissible under MGNERGA Programmes. The villagers share their grievances with her citing categorical allegation against the local bank for their “traditional” delay to clear wages under MGNREGA.

An amount of nearly 36 lakhs has been sanctioned for the consecutive  four projects at Udna village Where some 800 hundred job card holders would generate 18233 working days. Actual plantation may be held in next 20 days.

District Magistrate further says that after this village, the next progamme for Vetiver plantation will be held at Kanakpur Village which is surrounded by both Mundeswari which is a downstream of the river Damodar and a channel of Mundeswari namely Harinakhali. She herself visits Kanakpur too and feels the necessity of building a foot bridge to unify the villages with other areas since Kanakpur is the gateway of Howrah district.

Despite all resistance, under the able leadership of Ms. Rengarajan, SDM Arambagh Mr. Niyogi has succeeded to start Vetiver plantation process first in the state with the selfless dedication of Mr. Suprabhat Chatterjee, BDO, Khanakul-l besides the technical support from Rajkapoor Sharma, Executive Engineer of Irrigation & Waterways Department  of Govt. of West Bengal and Shantanoo Bhattacharyya, Executive Engineer, Govt. of Assam & Hony. Director, Eastern India Vetiver Network. However, the administration acknowledges the fact that Bhaskar jyoti Bera, Sub-divisional Information & Cultural Officer of Arambagh first informed the district administration about the usefulness of Vetiver and his logical representation plays the pivotal role in implementing this path breaking programme.  

The maxim :  if there is a will, there is a way would now be read as if there is a “genuine” will ----------.