5-day grape, watermelon fair inaugurated

A Five-day-long grapes and watermelon mela was inaugurated by Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Friday.

This is third such mela to be organised in Lalbagh Botanical Garden this year. The department had organised Sankranthi and vegetable melas as well.

"The idea of hosting such events is to eliminate middlemen and ensure that consumers get quality produce and farmers get the right price," Reddy said.

Gopal Gowda, Hopcoms marketing manager said that 15 varieties of grapes and two varieties of watermelon are on a sale in 20 stalls.

Grapes grown in farms of Kolar, Magadi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot and other places of the state have been brought here. Every day 5-10 tonnes of grapes will be up on sale.

"The grapes season started only from February second week. What was available on the market since January was the early variety exported from Maharashtra and so the quality was not good. Now fruits sold in Hopcoms and the mela are produced by local farmers, so quality is assured," Reddy he said.

All varieties are being sold at a 10% discount.

Citizens, tourists and even school children were seen making the most of the mela.

People were seen buying cartons of the seasoned fruits.

Many children on school trips were seen relishing the freshly cut watermelon and grapes. Horticulture Department left no stone unturned in making the school trip a memorable one for the children.

Some customers, however, wanted more. "I came here hoping to purchase the unique yellow watermelon, which was available last year. But I was disappointed. The department officials have assured that it will be on sale from Saturday," said Sharada M, a customer.