Govt providing training to migrant labourers from Kashmir to grow apples

Kolkata: State Panchayats and Rural Development department provided training to the migrant labourers who had returned from Kashmir in 2019 to grow apple in Murshidabad.

In October 2019, terrorists killed five migrant workers in Kashmir. Following the incident, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made arrangements to bring 133 migrant workers who had been working in Kashmir.

Of these workers, 118 were from the north and south Dinajpur while the remaining of them were from

north 24-Parganas, Malda, Murshidabad, Jalpaiguri and Birbhum. The Chief Minister provided all of them with financial assistance so that they would start a new life in Bengal. Most of these labourers used to work in apple gardens, cardboard factories and carpet manufacturing units. The Panchayats and Rural Development department sent five migrant to

the Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research (IIFS) at

Modipuram in Meerut to grow Apples at Sagardighi in Murshidabad. As these workers had worked in apple gardens Kashmir they have prior experience in growing the fruit. The workers who have received training will train up others.

The soil at Sagardighi is ideal for the growing of apples. The seed has been brought from Dehra Dun. Fruits are expected after three years, a senior official of the department said. The department has also identified 200 tribal villages where development work has been taken up under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. Under MGNREGA, the department has started catfish cultivation to make the villagers mostly women self-reliant. In vast areas under Sagardighi and Khargram, water pits have been dug up under Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act where catfish cultivation is going on.

The water pit has been dug up almost in every household. Senior officials of the department said that it would help the villagers particularly the women in becoming economically independent. Catfish are in high demand and they are being sold between Rs 300 to Rs 350 per kilogram in the cities and towns like Kolkata, Durgapur or Malda.