SHGs products: State pushes to boost sale

Kolkata: State Chief Secretary B P Gopalika on Saturday issued directions for hosting fairs in different districts mainly for providing a marketing platform for the various products

churned out by the Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the state.

The District Magistrates (DM) will take necessary initiative for such fairs with assistance from the state MSME and Panchayats and Rural Development department. Gopalika held a meeting with various secretaries and DMs from Nabanna. The state-level fair will be held in New Town from February 22 for 20 days with an emphasis on handloom products and articles made by the SHG groups. The Nabanna top brass has instructed to host fairs by March 15 in as many district headquarters as possible.

Three regional fairs will be held in Siliguri, Bolpur and Durgapur. The state has received 5 proposals for setting up green firecracker clusters last year with the provision of fiscal incentive of up to 90 per cent of the project cost of the cluster in three instalments.

Three such proposals from South 24-Parganas, Murshidabad and Howrah have already been sanctioned.

The Chief Secretary has directed the DMs to speed up submission of similar proposals from East Midnapore, Birbhum and Jhargram. The pending licenses in this regard should be cleared in the next 10 days, as directed by the Chief Secretary.

Gopalika expressed his displeasure over roads remaining in battered condition for a long time after the provision of water connection under Jal Jeevan mission to households across the state and asked the PHE department to take up immediate repair of such roads.

He also asked the PHE department to prioritise the supply of water in those places where road rejuvenation will be taken up under the

Pathashree project.