A unique four-day festival, the first of its kind in the city, will be held in June to showcase mangoes grown in orchards developed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in four such districts that are not so famous for the fruit.
Panchayats and Rural Development department in collaboration with Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs department will organise the festival from June 8 to 11 in City Centre I in Salt Lake.
Dibyendu Sarkar, Commissioner, Panchayats and Rural Development department, said that mangoes from Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram and Birbhum would be displayed at the festival. Around 20 quintal of mangoes will be brought initially at the festival. Mainly Amrapali and Mallika along with certain varieties of Alphonso grown in the orchards in these districts will be displayed at the festival which will be a classic example of how schemes under MGNREGA have worked so successfully in Bengal.
It was Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who took the initiative to grow mangoes in the districts which are not so famous for the fruit. The mango orchards are looked after by self-help groups run by women. They have been given the orchards on long-term lease for around 25 years.
Around 300 gardens under MGNREGA have come up in the districts. The scientists of Bidhanchandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya have added that the fruits in these gardens are very tasty and are being regularly exported to Dubai. Mangoes from the MGNREGA gardens have taken part in festivals held in New Delhi. The MGNREGA gardens in Bankura have given a new lease of life to the lepers who are fully recovered now but have been ostracized by their family members and the world at large due to the social stigma attached with the disease. Those who used to beg to earn a living, now, work in these orchards and live a respectable life.
They are also growing mangoes and other vegetables on land situated close to the Bankura Leper Hospital and are becoming self-reliant. Some of them will also be a part of this festival.
In the event, 10 quintal mangoes will come from Bankura followed by Purulia with five quintals, Jhargram with three and Birbhum two.
Officials of Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs department are very hopeful about the prospect of the festival. "It will give the Kolkatans an opportunity to have a taste of the mangoes from Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum and Jhargram which are unique in terms of quality. Hopefully, people will enjoy them to the fullest," an official maintained.