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Nari Shakti Samiti members at the fair in Dhanbad on Sunday. Picture by Gautam Dey
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Anand Mela, a two-day fair organised by Nari Shakti Samiti — an organisation of BCCL officers’ wives — wound up at the Nehru Complex ground in Dhanbad’s Koylanagar on Sunday.
The fair, which was primarily organised to raise funds for welfare activities by the samiti, saw some 49 kiosks doing brisk business during the course of two days. BCCL director (personnel) P.E. Kacchap had inaugurated the two-day festival on Saturday in the presence of a host of senior officials including director (operations) D.C. Jha, director (planning) A.K. Sarkar and director (finance) Amitabh Saha.
The organisers claimed that they had recorded a footfall of more than 25,000 during the fair, with BCCL officials and college and school children making up most of the crowd.
The organisers further said of the total number of stalls that had been put up, 12 were those from different areas covered by BCCL like Barora, Katras, Sijua, Govindpur, Block II, Kusunda, Putki Balihari, West Jharia, Lodna, East Jharia, Bastacola and Chanch Victoria.
A stall displaying kantha item like sarees, bedsheets, side-bags and dupattas stood out during the event, witnessing brisk sales, a large crowd and a number of queries pouring in.
“The sales volumes were encouraging. We sold over 200 side-bags, priced at Rs 100 each, during the fair. A set of hand stitched sarees that had been priced between Rs 3,000 and Rs 15,000 also drew a lot of eyeballs from the visitors,” Bhisma Deb Ghosh of the Kantha Shilpo Stall that had its roots in Bengal’s Shantiniketan said.
Those looking to grab a quick bite during their stroll also had plenty to tempt their taste buds, with the Katras, Putki Balihari and Barora area stalls offering a large variety of mouth-watering delicacies at affordable prices.
The vegetable biryani at the Katras stall was priced at Rs 40 per plate while the chicken biryani came for a reasonable Rs 70 per plate.
“We will distribute certificates among 630 women who had received training at our 25 stitching and embroidery training centres here on Monday,” said secretary of Nari Shakti Samiti Poonam Mishra.
She added that they also had plans to distribute around 33 sewing machines among women of Jharia who had been affected by the underground fire and had been resettled at Belgharia.
“Around 33 women from Jharia are currently undergoing receiving stitching and embroidery training at Belgharia itself,” Misha said. She went on to add that they had plans to set up a computer-training centre at Belgharia during the last week of January.
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