India News | Being Held After 4 Years, Santiniketan's Century-old Poush Mela to Have Longer Duration

Santiniketan (WB), Nov 25 (PTI) West Bengal's heritage winter fair 'Poush Mela', to be held next month after four years, will have an extended duration to help participants garner more sales, organisers said on Monday.

The fair will be organised in the traditional format on the pre-Covid scale with required back-up support provided by the local district administration.

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However, in a break from tradition, the fair will be held for six days instead of four as had been the practice so far, Visva-Bharati spokesperson Atig Ghosh said after a meeting among all stakeholders.

"As all the persons concerned wanted to extend the Poush Mela for two more days we too agreed,” said Anil Konar, spokesperson of another organiser Santiniketan Trust.

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Minister Chandranath Sinha who also attended the meeting said that the Birbhum district administration will extend a helping hand.

The fair will be held for six days and will be wound up within another two days, he said.

Earlier on November 13, Visva-Bharati university and Santiniketan Trust decided to organise the fair on a grand scale.

The Visva Bharati and the Santiniketan Trust had backed out after initially deciding to hold the century-old fair in 2023 citing time constraints to hold it on a grand scale.

The state government had then stepped in and a far smaller winter fair was organised during the same period of the Poush Mela by the administration last December.

The fair, held on the seventh day of Bengali month 'Poush' which falls in late December, was first organised by 'Maharshi' Debendranath Tagore, father of Visva-Bharati founder Rabindranath Tagore, in 1894 to showcase the handicrafts, heritage and culture of Bengal, particularly Birbhum district.

Since 1951, the 'Poush Mela' has been organised by Visva-Bharati in collaboration with the Trust and with support from the West Bengal government. The Trust, also set up by Debendranath Tagore, owns around 11 bighas in and around the varsity campus.

The fair was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and again in 2022 because of infrastructural difficulties faced by the organisers.

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