The Report - North 24 Parganas

usually buy about 1 kg of oil but when I receive money from NREGA I buy one fulltin of oil that is still in use at home.”After the pond work was completed, the coconut trees have been growing wellon his household premises. The pond has been cleaned and so now Bimal hasbeen ale to do some fish rearing successfully. He has earned a lot of money,almost Rs. 150 per kg from bhetki and rahu fishes that had grown big in the pond.Bimal is thinking of rearing prawns in the pond as well as part of his future plans.He is also very enthusiastic and ambitious about starting programs that canreduce the salinity in the pond waters. Often and on he prefers to bring up thesetopics in the panchayat discussions. Bimal thinks “the biggest advantage ofNREGA is that we can all work together. We also get paid the same, irrespectiveof our physical strength and capacity for work. So there are many advantages inteam work.”On submission of an exchange certificate, Bimal has hoped to borrow Rs. 36000from the Hingalganj Allahabad Bank. But due to some zonal issues the loan wasrejected. Bimal sees future in piggeries and fisheries. “I want to make a piggery inanother piece of land that I own. It would really be profitable I think. Besides, ifthe pond drainage system can be cleared then there are huge possibilities ofrearing greater number of fishes.”Bimal finally hopes that the NREGA program has an opportunity to offer morebenefits to the poor people and expand more. “If we had these facilities beforethen I think many of our own people from the village who have left to variousother states such as Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for work would not havegone.”