Success of united women power

 

COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 28: Two hundred women, mainly housewives, are fighting tirelessly to stand on their own feet through a united effort. They already achieved mentionworthy success. Others are eyeing on them with an intention to follow the path they already explored out.

 

The story is as follows : Two hundred women from twenty self-help groups (SHG) of Jadavpalli in Falakata of Alipurduar formed a joint platform named Manabi Sangha in 2003. Ms Shefali Barman is their team leader.

 

The members of Manabi Sangha had taken a loan amounting to Rs 2-lakh from Uttar Banga Kshetriya Gramin Bank and purchased a strip of land. They started a poultry farm there. Within two years they paid back the loan amount and purchased a pond of about 4.5-bigha by taking a fresh loan. In that pond the members of the Manabi Sangha started pisciculture. Meanwhile the volume of the poultry farm and its business were expanded.

 

Ms Shefali Barman said they took a loan of Rs 2.5-lakh under Mahila Samriddhi Yojana scheme and with that they paid back a portion of the loan amount that was taken from the bank. With the rest amount they bought a new plot of land and started cultivating vegetables there. A nursery was also established to grow plant saplings.

 

Ms Arati Pal, Ms Urmila Basak, Ms Pranati Barman, Ms Shefali Aich, Ms Kinkari Sarkar and other members said they are not taking out their share of dividends. They have a plan to make their business efforts more flourished. "We understood the power of joint venture and we want others to learn this", they said. And as expected, the womenfolk of neighbouring areas are also getting interested and inspired. They are too considering following the steps of Manabi Sangha to add some additional bucks to their families. []

 

Bandh in Tufanganj

 

COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 28: Except some stray incidents the bandh called separately by Trinamul Congress and BJP in Tufanganj passed off almost peacefully today. Police said no untoward incident was reported from anywhere during the bandh period.

 

District Trinamul Congress president Mr Rabindra Nath Ghosh alleged that CPI-M supporters tried to foil the bandh by opening some shops forcefully at Kalibari area this morning. But later the shopkeepers pulled down the shutters spontaneously to make the bandh successful. He said they called the bandh in six Gram Panchayat areas of Tufanganj today to protest against forcible eviction of nine hundred shops of local traders from a haat at Uttar Chhatjaigir Chilakhana in Tufanganj.

 

District BJP president Mr Nityananda Munsi alleged that they also called the bandh on the same issue. Police arrested twenty-four BJP supporters for pro-bandh campaigning, Mr Munsi claimed. He also alleged that CPI-M supporters forced shop owners to keep their shops open at Andaran Fulbari area.

 

CPI-M sources claimed that the bandh sponsored by BJP and Trinamul Congress was failed to gain support from the people. The people rejected their plan to disturb the peaceful situation in Tufanganj, a senior CPI-M leader commented.

 

It may be mentioned here that a few hundred shops were demolished by the district administration at a haat in Tufanganj on Saturday morning. The shops were demolished to clear the site for construction of the proposed building of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya that was inaugurated by state education minister Mr Kanti Biswas on 27 February last year. []