Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced the provision of 20 cottah land in New Town opposite Eco Park to the Paschim Banga Mistanna Byabsayee Samity (PMBS) at a nominal cost of Re 1 for setting up a Mishti Hub.
“We have an existing Mishti Hub adjacent to Eco Park. I am ready to offer 20 cottah land just opposite this hub. The matter will be placed in the next Cabinet meeting and I will try to provide this land at only Re 1. Famous sweets from all districts are expected to find their place in the hub. There should be one stall each from every district,” Banerjee said at the Milan Utsav event organised by PMBS on Tuesday.
Banerjee instructed minister Firhad Hakim who is also the Chairman of West Bengal Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation to do the needful so that it can be placed at the next Cabinet meeting for approval. Banerjee christened this upcoming Mishti Hub as ‘Mistanna’.
She said that Eco Park is a favoured tourist destination and lakhs of people visit the place so sweets in the existing Mishti Hub can be kept in packets of different sizes so that people can pick one or more as per their choice or budget.
She advised the PABS members to decorate the stalls attractively. She also suggested keeping local items of Sitalpati and Patachitra in the sweet stalls.
Banerjee maintained that UNESCO declared Bengal as the tourist destination of the world. She asked the Samiti to come up with more sweet shops in Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
Banerjee said that her government has plans to set up four more Mishti Hubs in the state for promoting sweets like ‘Jalbhora Sandesh’ of Chandannagore, ‘Chanabora’ of Murshidabad, ‘Motichurer Laddu’ and ‘Nolen Gurer Sandesh’ of Bishupur.
“Two Misthi Hubs at Burdwan and New Town have already been set up at an investment of Rs 11.5 crore. A similar hub is coming up at Basirhat entailing an expenditure of Rs 4.5 crore. The MSME department is setting up the Mishti Udyog cluster near Moulali at the CTC building. There will be 20 stalls along with packaging facilities, a testing laboratory and a food kiosk in this cluster,” Banerjee added.
She suggested that the sweet manufacturers should emphasise preparing sweets that are devoid of ‘too much sweet or sugar’ considering people are health conscious nowadays.
“People usually celebrate birthdays with cakes. You can prepare ‘Payesh Cake’ to add a Bengali touch to such birthday celebrations. There is always scope for diversification and you should come up with innovations in sweets and it will surely enhance sales,” Banerjee said in a word of advice.
The Chief Minister extended an invitation to PMBS members to be present at the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) scheduled to be held in November.
According to PMBS, around 10 lakh people in the state are dependent on the sweet industry for their bread and butter. The turnover of the industry is Rs 1 lakh crore with 1.20 lakh sweet shops spanned across the state.