The 10-day SARAS Mela-2013 inaugurated by Rajpur road MlA Rajkumar and secretary information Vinod Fonia at the Parade Ground on Wednesday has entries from 24 Indian States with the event organisers hopeful of catering to the public looking for good deals in this festive season.
The event manager of the fair, Sharad Sundriyal said, “The mela is organised to encourage and strengthen artisans from below poverty line (BPl). like every year, this year also all the artisans have assembled to showcase their skills and to seek employment opportunities.
He also said that SARAS is an initiative of the Government of India to provide a platform for the rural artisans to sell their products through exhibitions. A total of 200 stalls have been put up in the fair out of which 150 stalls are of self help groups and rest 50 are owned by private businessmen. There are a number of items to attract the public to the event which will help traditional artisans and craftsmen of the country,” he added.
A stall owner at the exhibition, Rashmi Painuly said that her stall has a wide range of paper products including accessories, lamps, decorative hangings and other paper items made by members of Bindu Society. Government of India has provided a very good platform for self help group members as it the best way to showcase our products, she added.
Mangal Singh, a farmer from Tehri district said that such exhibitions are the best avenue for selling his products. Various organic products including pulses, spices, rose water, apricot oil etc are being sold for a reasonable price at his stall. He also thanked the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board for supporting Uttarakhand farmers.
Ramkaran, another stall owner from Uttarakhand said that he works with the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India limited (Trifed). This kind of exhibition generates income for tribal people and also increases employment opportunities, he added.
Gulzar Ahmed Haroon from Jammu and Kashmir said, “The government has given a good platform to us for showing our talent. Government also provides facilities like food and shelters for us during the fair, “ he added.
Govind Singh Meher from Gopeshwar said that his stall is selling a wide range of grain biscuits made by himself and village ladies. All items in the stall are made with natural grains such as ragi, maize, oat, barley, amaranth etc.
Apart from this, around 130 self help groups from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Bihar among other States have opened their stalls in the Mela.