The Bidhannagar Mela kicked off today at Mela Prangan in Salt Lake.

The Mela will be open for the public from tomorrow till 12 March. The opening of the fair was advanced by a day as the state would be busy celebrating International Mother Tongue Day (Bhasha Diwas).

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Dignitaries on stage, which included, MP Saugata Roy, women and child development minister Shashi Panja, for minister Sujit Bose, food minister Rathin Ghosh, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation mayor Krishna Chakraborty, jointly lit the ceremonial lamp to declare the fair open.

Minister Firhad Hakim, who was supposed to open the fair, was absent due to health reasons.

Mayor Krishna Chakraborty said the people look forward to the fair and were a bit worried as the International Kolkata Book Fair preceded the Bidhannagar Mela this time. “Apart from getting calls enquiring about the fair, even chief minister Mamata Banerjee was eager to hold the fair.”

The women & child development and social welfare minister, Shashi Panja said, “Different self-help groups (SHG) from the state and outside the state participate in the fair and it means exchange of economy. The MSME sector, which the CM is eager to promote, also gets a fillip through the fairs. Our government also gives out loans to people who want to do business to encourage entrepreneurship. People outside the state may ridicule us for the frequency of fairs in the state but the fact is that these fairs serve as an ‘informal economy’. This helps the artisans get self sufficiency.”