National Service Scheme (NSS) IIT Kharagpur

A block of 4 public toilets is under construction for the last few months at Nachna.  While the fund for construction is from Thakurdas Foundation, all stakeholders are working shoulder to shoulder with NSS IIT Kharagpur to see the project through.  The Panchayat is pitching in this endeavor by sinking a bore well to ensure water availability at the toilet block.  The bore well has also been equipped with a submersible pump, a water tank and a water line.  The water tank was donated by IIT Kharagpur.  Other equipment, fittings and fixtures and plumbers are paid for through another eternally funded project.  The locals are donating labor once again without charging the toilet project funds.  NSS volunteers and faculty members from IIT Kharagpur are also donating their time by physically taking part in construction activities.  Regardless, the project is chugging along.  Locals are happy with the progress and are excited to participate in the ...

Rochish Manda, Kumar Aniket (Unit 1) and Sandeep Muzzalda (Unit 12) shared videos of the nukkad (street play) performances of December 5 at Khelar Annual Camp.  Here they are...  

Dev Burman (Unit 5) shared a video on review of their roadwork by Khelar residents.  A slightly edited version of the video can be found here...

Units 12 and 15 still conscientiously put in a few more hours trying finish their roadwork tasks.  Things didn't get completed and the decision was to come back to Purba Shikarpari and elsewhere to finish things up.  Then there was this plan of an inter-unit knockout football tournament.  That also could proceed only to the end of the first round - pre-quarterfinals - before the match officials and the players gave up and the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final were saved for some other time.  Then there was garbage clearance.  Only when the area started to look nice and clean folks started throwing around plastic wrappers, food waste and what not.  Then came some sentimental stuff in the afternoon that the annual camp apparently built bridges between participants although the fight for a lousy seat on the bus continued through the entire duration of the camp. Finally Professor Dibakar Dhara's point calculation revealed Unit 1 was the best in nukka...

While the quantum of work completed so far by the volunteers during the annual camp in 2016 has been impressive, roadwork were at virtual standstill at Dakshin Banpatna (Units 10, 13, 14 and 15), Library (Unit 11), Raipur (Units 7and 8) and Khelar (Units 5 and 6) - obsession of these units with street play ( nukkad ) performance kept them from extending their roads or improve the quality of their roadwork.  Watering and compaction of road fill continued at Raghunathpur (Units 2 and 4) and Seva Dal (Units 1 and 3) and fill (moorum) placement and culvert construction at Purba Shikarpari (Units 9 and 12).  Unit 3 got a water body adjacent to their place of work cleaned up and dug a composting pit as well.  The locals generally praised the efforts of NSS volunteers.  Two such feedback are shared with this post. A grand lunch was followed by nukkad performance by all 15 units covering a variety of social, political and environmental issues.  Annual camp participa...

Roadwork at Purba Shikarpari (units 9 and 12), Library area of Banpatna (unit 11) and Dakshin Banpatna (units 10, 13, 14 and 15) should have gotten a tremendous boost with the delivery of an additional 6 wheel barrows although the impact was somewhat nullified by an unusual obsession of several units (including unit 1 working at Seva Dal and units 2 and 4 working at Raghunathpur) with street play ( nukkad ) rehearsal. The afternoon session was also extremely productive except for the sad back-to-back losses of NSS cricket team at the hands of the youth's team of Khelar-Banpatna.   The first one of the two 8-over matches was basically a wash out with the loosing team managing a paltry 43 runs and the victors chasing the total at the cost of only 2 wickets with countless overs to spare.  Performance of NSS in the second one was better - only very slightly - despite the valiant wicket keeping by Professor Dibakar Dhara captured in several professional grade photographs ta...

Road work continued at Dakshin Banpatna, Raghunathpur, Seva Dal and Purba Shikarpari areas.  The groups at Purba Shikarpari were unable to pinch a wheel barrow since the beginning.  Their progress has therefore been somewhat compromised so far.  They finally managed to borrow a tricycle trolley from a local.  This will hopefully let them finish their work on time.  Local residents are also helping by lending their tools and implements, participating physically in the road works and sparing words of encouragement for the hardworking volunteers. In the afternoon Mr Kartik Chatterjee, an expert on sustainable agriculture from Shaktigarh, Burdwan with several years of hands on experience, talked to 15 farmers from the Khelar area interested to learn the latest techniques in sustainable agriculture.  The local farmers were so impressed with what Mr Chatterjee had to present, they are planning to visit Mr Chatterjee's agricultural farm in Burdwan.   T...