Budget 2011: Two villagers share their expectations

It is not the best of times for Bikas Manna and Manoranjan Gharai of Haripur in coastal West Bengal.

They live in the constant fear of losing their land to a nuclear power plant planned in this area, which comes under the East Midnapore district in Bengal.

Only the crucial upcoming Assembly polls in West Bengal now keeps them from facing reality.

The two villagers- one a farmer and the other a fisherman - speak about their expectations, or rather the absence of it, from the government.

At the moment, their biggest hope is that the government will relocate the nuclear plant elsewhere so that Gharai, 31, does not run out of his catch of fish (he fears marine life will be destroyed by the plant) and Manna, 50, does not lose his green acres that produce a golden harvest.

But they do have a few budget expectations too:

Text: India Blooms

Images: AP, India Blooms