[caption id="attachment_222365" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
Manipur Chief DMinister N BIren and officials visit stalls opened at the orange festival at Tamenglong town in Manipur on Saturday.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Imphal, Dec. 8 (EMN): The 15th state-level orange festival kick started on Saturday at Tamenglong town about 150 km west of Imphal.
The festival will continue for three days with number of events including seminar on promotion of oranges cultivation and prospects besides discussions on other development activities and orange queen 2018 contest in the Tamenglong district at the hill town till Monday.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, Horticulture and Soil Conservation Minister Th Shyam Kumar, Consumers Affairs and Food and Public Distribution Minister Karam Shyam, MLAs Samuel Jendai (Tamenglong), Awangbou Newmai (Tamei) attended the opening function as the chief guest,functional president and guests of honour.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister assured financial assistant from the government under the start-up program to the orange growers in Tamenglong through the Deputy Commissioner office.
He directed the concerned officials to set up a research team within a week to look into the problems faced by the orange growers. He also assured setting up of cold storage for the growers.
Singh appealed the farmers and the committee to work together for better production of oranges in the district.
A seminar on oranges cultivation and its promotion will be organised today followed by the orange queen 2018 contest. The ‘Orange Quee’n title holder will be awarded as cash prize of INr 1.20 lakh while the best grower will be awarded a cash prize of INR 1.50 lakh.