Tripura to distribute vitamin-C enriched fruits to boost immunity

To curb the spread of coronavirus, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said that the state government will start freedistribution of vitamin-C enriched fruits among people inurban areas from Saturday to boost their immunities to fightthe coronavirus infection.

Tripura's Law and Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said the state government will spend Rs one crore to implement the "Programme for boosting public immunity in the urban areas in COVID-19 (Mukhya Mantri Corona Pratirodhak Abhiyan).” The state government will start distributingvitamin-C enriched fruits especially pineapple and lemon fromJuly 4.

“These fruits have been bought directly from thefarmers so that they could also get benefits. The scheme willbe monitored by the National Urban Livelihood Mission at thegrassroots,” Deb said in a Facebook post.

The fruits will be distributed by urban local bodiesthroughout the state every Saturday from 12 pm to 4 pm.Tripura produces 1.28 lakh tonnes of pineapples annually. The queen variety of pineapple is the state fruit and exported to Dubai, Bangladesh and many other countries.

“The state horticulture department has given a list ofpineapple and lemon growing places and names of farmers to theauthorities concerned so that they could buy and supply thesefruits,” an official said.

Tripura is known for its exotic and juicy pineapple varieties i.e. Kew and Queen that are also exported. The state’s annual pineapple production is around 1.3 lakh tonnes. The Queen variety was declared Tripura’s “State Fruit” in 2018 by President Ram Nath Kovind. Pineapples in the state are grown in 9,628 hectares of land by an estimated over 5,000 farmers.

With 1,401 COVID-19 cases so far, Tripura recorded the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases in Northeast after Assam (8,956 cases). Currently, there are 307 active cases.