Sagar Island Relief

The Namami Gange initiative of Government of India, in which NSS  represents IIT Kharagpur, got NSS in touch with Digamparpur and Dhaspara Sumatinagar II Anchal Panchayats of the district of 24 Paraganas (South).  These deltaic locations near the mouth of the Ganga are low lying and flanked between major rivers.  Local agricultural – mainly rice cultivation and beetle (paan) plantation – depend on the integrity of river dikes that suffer frequent breaches during the wet season.  The river dikes protecting the eastern shoreline of Sagar Island in 24 Paragans (South) on the Muriganga in Sumatinagar was breached on several occasions during the monsoon of 2016 leaving more than 200 families homeless.  NSS – IIT Kharagpur responded to the request of Mr Bipin Parua, Anchal Pradhan, Dhaspara Sumatinagar II for help by collecting relief materials and small donations from the residents of IIT campus in August.  Dr Mantu Rajak and Prof BM Manoj and Vikas Kumar Sharma and Mayank Kamal, volunteers of Unit 7, and Hemant Choudhury, a volunteer of Unit 12 delivered and distributed the relief materials in Dhaspara Sumatinagar on behalf of NSS – IIT Kharagpur on August 28.  They carried the relief consignment to Haldia on August 27 on a bus provided by IIT Kharagpur.  From there they took a 2-1/2 hour ride on a barge that delivers paan twice a day to Haldia and returns to Sagar Island with miscellaneous articles for local market.  Mr Parua hosted them at Sagar Island at his own cost.  NSS – IIT Kharagpur is grateful for the gesture.