Bangla Govt to build mall in Rajarhat for selling organic crops

The State Agriculture Marketing Department has decided to build a Sufal Bangla Mall in Rajarhat to sell crops grown using organic fertilisers.

The setup on 15 cottahs will cost Rs 16 crore. It would be inaugurated on August 31 with the opening of a Sufal Bangla stall. Gradually other organic crop growers would be allotted space to sell their produce.

This would be a major step towards the promotion of organic crops in the State. Already the Agriculture Department has set up 120 clusters in 13 districts for growing organic crops. Every cluster has 50 farmers as members.

Organic milk in environment-friendly packets, courtesy Sundarini

The award-winning Sundarini Naturals brand of the State Government is soon going to sell organically-made factory-processed milk on a large scale, packed in environment-friendly easily degradable packets (which can break down easily in soil). The entire process – from rearing cows to producing milk – would be organic, that is, no chemicals would be used.

In an initiative to empower women of the Sundarbans, a cooperative named Sundarban Co-Operative Milk & Livestock Producers Union Ltd. was started in 2015. Its brand was named Sundarini Naturals by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

For its achievement in helping almost 3,000 downtrodden women to fight back in life through the making and selling of cow milk, ghee, honey from the jungles of the Sundarbans, eggs of ducks and hens, moong dal and rice, the National Dairy Development Board recently awarded Sundarban Co-Operative as the best milk cooperative and selected Sundarini Naturals as an ideal model, fit for replication elsewhere in the country.

Every day, 10,000 litres of milk would be packed at the state-of-the-art factory, to be built inside the Kisan Mandi in Mathurapur-1 block in South 24 Parganas. The work of building the plant would be completed by December.

Each pouch would be of 500 ml and would be priced at competitive rates. The initial effort would be to capture a portion of the Kolkata market. Sundarban Co-Operative is in talks with various malls to stock its brands there.

Source: Bartaman

Housing societies recycling organic waste to get tax discount

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is chalking up plans to give discount on the property tax payable by housing societies if they recycle their organic waste into fertilizer.

The fertilizer could be used by the housing societies for the trees and plants within their campuses. The money saved by the corporation in not having to pick up garbage from such societies would be adjusted against their housing taxes, and hence the discount.

This was stated recently by a senior KMC official at a seminar organised by a leading real estate developers’ organisation.

In this connection, the official stated that the KMC is also planning to generate power from organic waste. Another senior KMC official present at the seminar explained how the KMC has brought in changes in the building laws to make a certain amount of greenery mandatory.

আবাসনের জৈব বর্জ্যকে পুনর্ব্যবহারযোগ্য করলে ছাড় মিলবে সম্পত্তি করে

আবাসনের জৈব বর্জ্যকে আবাসিকরা পুনর্ব্যবহারযোগ্য করে তুলতে পারলে সম্পত্তি করে ছাড় দেওয়ার কথা ভাবছে কলকাতা পুরসভা। এই কথা জানিয়েছেন পুরসভার কঠিন বর্জ্য উপস্থাপনা বিভাগের মেয়র পরিষদ সদস্য দেবব্রত মজুমদার।

এই কর্মসূচির অংশ হিসাবে আয়োজক সংস্থা যে প্রকল্প আনতে চলেছে, তাতেও বলা হয়েছে, জৈব এবং অজৈব বর্জ্যকে আলাদা আলাদা ডাস্টবিনে ফেলার কথা। তারপর জৈব বর্জ্য থেকে সার প্রস্তুত করে তা গাছের গোড়ায় দেওয়ার কথাও বলা হয়েছে। পুরসভাকে যদি কোনও বড় আবাসন থেকে প্রতিদিন বর্জ্য তুলতে না হয়, তাহলে যে খরচ বাঁচবে, তা থেকেই সম্পত্তি কর ছাড়ের ব্যবস্থা করা যেতে পারে বলে আশ্বস্ত করেন মেয়র পারিষদ।

এই প্রসঙ্গে কলকাতা পুরসভা যে বর্জ্য থেকে বিদ্যুৎ উৎপাদন এবং সার উৎপাদনের কথা ভাবছে, সেই কথাও জানান মেয়র পারিষদ।

Source: Bartaman