Thursday, 30 march 2023 | PNS | NAINITAL
The produce of the villages bordering China in Munsiyari region of Pithoragarh district will be now available in one place. The administration has approved the proposal mooted by district panchayat member Jagat Martolia and under Border Area Development Programme (BADP), a separate Mandi is coming up in the Munsiyari development block. For this, an amount of Rs 20 lakh has been approved. Notably, a variety of items is being produced in this region and these are of good quality and yet due to the lack of a fixed Mandi, the produce is not getting their desired number of buyers. In Munsiyari region, vegetables, horticultural products, herbs, ringal products, handicrafts besides dairy products and trout fishes among others are produced in different areas.
A common Mandi eluding the producers, their plight is not improving. Now, things would become easy for the sellers and buyers to have the produce at one place, said Jagat Martolia, adding that the people, particularly the women associated with self-help groups, are happy with the administration having accepted his proposal. He further said that having realized the developmental importance of this proposal, the district magistrate Rina Joshi and the chief development officer Barun Chaudhary have accepted it promptly. “I proposed it in the interests of the women self-help groups which work hard in producing myriad items. They need a fixed place to sell their produce. The produce of the mountain villages here is not getting their proper prices because of the involvement of the middlemen in local markets. Things must change for the better. In the coming days, this Mandi would become popular in the border areas,” he said and added that a body has been formed by the administration to execute the project.
