Corona times swallow up Taj City’s ‘petha’ business

The petha industry, which suffered a huge loss, is staring at a gloomy future

AGRA :Other than the Taj Mahal, it is ‘petha’ (a sweetmeat made from ash gourd or white pumpkin) which is the pride of Agra.

The petha mandi is located at a place called Noori Darwaza, which got its name from Mughal Empress Noor Jahan. It is said she once visited the locality famed for its petha and liked the sweetmeat very much. Since then, this capital of petha making was named ‘Noori Darwaza’ after her.

However, these days, the lanes in Noori Darwaza are lying barren with no wooden barrows transporting ‘kumhada’ or ashgourd, which is the raw material for petha. Post the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown the market was closed.

Since the petha industry is not very well organized and is run on a small scale, the exact loss cannot be ascertained but according to Rajesh Goyal, chairman of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Petha Kuteer Association, it runs into lakhs as summer is the peak season for petha sale.

“We are nearing the end of season for petha, a translucent soft product more preferred to counter the heat of summer. We pray the petha trade picks up again and we can return to our normal livelihood,” said Vinod Goyal, owner of a prestigious brand of petha who has a chain of shops in Agra.

“Petha counts on its freshness and thus all the prepared material has been distributed and consumed and it will be a totally new beginning for trade in June. The scare of coronavirus has adversely affected the petha season (March to June) before monsoon arrives,” Goyal said.

“In one way or another, the sale of petha is linked to tourism which is at a standstill with Taj Mahal closed. Petha is not only a popular eatable in rural marriages but tourists almost always take it back with them along with Agra’s dalmoth. They are not likely to visit in coming months, till normalcy returns for tourism,” he said. Medicinal value

An advocate of the medicinal value of petha, Rajesh Goyal, chairman of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Petha Kuteer Association, is of the firm belief that petha making, once resumed, will even beat the corona virus scare and revival of petha market would symbolize revival of trade in

Agra.

“Doctors prescribe petha to heart and liver patient and it also comes handy in jaundice and other problems. It is baked and boiled so many times that it can cause no unhealthy infection. The raw material ‘kumhada’ or white pumpkin is first boiled at 200 degrees Celsius and is baked with lime water after being cut in pieces and then alum is added to it before being boiled in sugar syrup for 2 hours. Petha has no fat content,” Rajesh Goyal said.

“It is one of the cheapest and healthiest sweets that even doctors prescribe. Ayurvedic doctors prescribe it as medicine and it finds mention in the Mahabharat,” he said.

“Our units are closed for the past two months and now we are expecting resumption in June. There are about 500 units running at small scale. The mandi (market) of raw vegetable ‘kumhada’ is in Noori Darwaza where the farmers bring it from nearby districts including Etah, Etawah, Kasganj, Auraiyya and terai belt of Bareilly and the season of crop is in May and June,” informed Rajesh Goyal.

“If the government talks of going ‘vocal about local’ then it should give us ‘direct’ benefits like relaxation in electricity bill and freedom from inspector raj at least for a few months once we begin after corona period,” said Rajesh Goyal.

“We have faithful labourers coming from nearby areas and they will work once we start the units,” he said, adding they were daily wagers mostly from rural area of the district and were waiting for the industry to reopen.

To recall, use of coal in Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) area was banned on the orders of the Supreme Court. Rajesh Goyal said now LPG had replaced use of coal as it was a cheaper option.

During the ban on use of coal, the industries were raided and supply disrupted and thus units came up in nearby states of Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana but they are yet to become a threat to Agra’s monopoly because of specialised labour here having mastery in trade.