By IANS,
Patna : The who’s who of the political circles in Delhi, including the president, will feast on summer fruits from Bihar orchards. The Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has dispatched gifts of luscious fruits for selected Delhi VIPs.
“Well decorated packets of ‘Shahi’ litchis and special ‘Zardalu’ mangoes were dispatched for New Delhi by train Thursday from Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur. Officials of the Bihar Bhavan in New Delhi will deliver the gift packets VIPs, including President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” an official in the Chief Minister’s Office told IANS here Friday.
Officials said that Zardalu mangoes from Bhagalpur orchards and Shahi litchis from orchards in Muzaffarpur are known for their rare taste and delicate flavour. But these fruits are hardly marketed within and outside the country. This is an attempt to promote them, a government official said.
“It will boost the state’s image as well as promote agri-products of the state,” he said.
The state government has prepared a list of over 400 important people in New Delhi who will receive the gifts, officials said.
Besides Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, other central ministers, senior diplomats of many embassies, top bureaucrats and Supreme Court judges will also receive the baskets of these fruits.
The Nitish Kumar government has been sending these fruits as gifts to VIPs in New Delhi since the last five years in order to promote Bihar’s image – and obviously to sweeten the state’s relations with the centre.