The mouthwatering ‘Sandila ke laddoo’ will no longer be confined to Hardoi's town. Similarly, Ghosi’s laddoo-shaped jaggery, raw bananas of Campierganj and green peas of Pharenda among other products will also hit the stands across the country.
Buoyed by the success of the One District One Product (ODOP), the Uttar Pradesh government is gearing up to launch a similar scheme called ‘One Tehsil, One Product’ (OTOP).
In the first phase of its launch, meetings with the district administrations will be conducted for the identification and shortlisting of unique products in each tehsil spread over 75 districts of the state.
Based on this, their possibilities will be explored along with understanding the requirements for promotion of the products in collaboration with an expert organisation.
The promotion of these products will help strengthen ‘Brand UP’ not only within the country but also on the global platform. In a way, the scheme will be an extension of the ODOP and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath intends to engage the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) department to achieve the goal.
Gotha, a town of Ghosi tehsil in Mau district, is famous for its jaggery. It is an old but the nearest market for sugarcane farmers of the region. Followers of Buddhism from various countries and other tourists en route to Lumbini from Varanasi pass through the town and get to taste the famous jaggery.
Like Gotha, many other tehsils or towns of Uttar Pradesh have their own unique products. For example, Ramchaura in Campierganj of Gorakhpur district is known for its raw bananas while Pharenda, a town in Maharajganj district, is famous for its sweeter green peas and Hardoi for ‘Sandila ka laddoos’. Similarly, the history of cultivation of turmeric in the Dudahi block of Kushinagar is centuries old. In fact, each tehsil has some unique product to offer.
On the lines of ODOP, if these famous products of various tehsils will be provided facilities for packaging, designing, branding, marketing and availability of capital as per requirement along with adequate training to enhance the skills of people associated with them, they are sure to be as successful as the ODOP.
“The objective of the Yogi government behind the launch of ODOP was to identify one unique product from each of the 75 districts of UP and create a product-specific traditional industrial hub to boost the state’s economy,” ACS, MSME, Navneet Sehgal said here on Tuesday.
He said the scheme also seeks to nurture local arts, crafts and skills while ending economic disparity and regional imbalance and promoting ODOP items in national as well as global markets. It also aims to enhance people’s income and generate employment on a large scale to prevent migration of people for jobs.