At the time when a large part of the country’s population is suffering due to food shortage, about 2 lakh litres of fresh milk production in and around Kolkata was getting discarded into the drains. The wastage was the result of the lack of any distribution channel to carry the milk to the sweet shops. Addressing the issue, sweetmakers’ association, West Bengal Mistanna Byabasayee finally wrote to the CM, requesting her to allow reopening the sweet shops across the city. In response to the appeal, most sweet shops across West Bengal finally opened doors, pulling in a good number of sweet lovers who lined up in glee to buy their favourite mishtis.
Shops Opened Amid Lockdown
Amid lockdown, West Bengal becomes the first Indian state to open up all sweet shops. Popular sweet chains of Kolkata like Balaram Mullick and Radharaman Mullick have also started their sweet delivery services. As per the Government orders, the shops will remain open for four hours, from 12 noon to 4 P.M. with the presence of minimal staff.
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Why Was It Needed?
Milk is one of the foremost ingredients that are required in the manufacturing of sweets. The mishti shops in West Bengal consume about 60% of the milk produce of the state. Confectioners use milk to make sweets, paneer, dahi, kheer, cottage cheese and so on. There are over 1 lakh sweet shops in the entire state of West Bengal. Going with the statistics, every 1 km stretch of the state has around 17 sweet shops. The opening up of the sweet shops has been a big relief to the state’s milkmen, many of whom were on the verge of selling off their cattle with almost nobody to purchase their milk.
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Sweets are the lifeline of the Bengalis. Reopening of these shops after a gap of about a week has turned out to be a heavenly treat to the people of West Bengal.