Samabay Mela inaugurated at Netaji Indoor
Kolkata: The 'Samabay Mela 2019' was inaugurated at Netaji Indoor stadium on Friday, where various government departments put up their stalls.
Around 12,000 delegates from different cooperative societies took part in the inauguration programme. As many as 250 cooperative societies and self-help groups will showcase their products in the stalls at the fair.
Before the programme was inaugurated, legendary singer Arati Mukherjee enthralled the audience with some of her popular numbers. A scintillating performance by eminent Odissi dancer Dona Ganguly and her team also amazed the audience.
State Cooperation minister Arup Roy said during his inaugural speech that various steps have been taken by his department to provide loans and other financial benefits to unemployed youths, so that they can start small-scale businesses in their locality.
"Under the guidance of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the cooperation movement has reached its pinnacle. Presently, around 36,000 cooperative societies having more than 80 lakh members are working in the state. We have been able to extend facilities to over 50 lakh farmers. ATM-enabled RuPay Kisan Cards have already been handed over to 11.17 lakh farmers and financial assistance of Rs 180 crore has been provided to one lakh members of self-help groups (SHGs) under the cooperative sector for goat and poultry farming. The department has mostly targeted women, so that they come forward and take part in the SHGs," Roy said.
He further added: "Paddy procurement is being done under minimum support price (MSP) scheme directly from the farmers through various cooperative societies and self-help groups, to prevent distress sale."
The theme of 'Samabay Mela' this year is 'Cooperation is the key towards poverty alleviation and eradication of unemployment in the state'.
State Finance minister Amit Mitra and state Labour minister Moloy Ghatak were
among the dignitaries who were present at the programme. Panel discussions related to cooperation were also held at the event.
