NEW DELHI, July 5: The Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has sent 2,600 kilograms of mangoes as gift for prime minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, reports said on Monday.
The consignment, being carried in Bangladeshi trucks, containing 260 boxes of the famous ‘Haribhanga’ mangoes crossed the border to enter into India on Sunday afternoon.
The Haribhanga mango variety, grown in Rangpur district in Bangladesh, was sent across the land border via the Benapole checkpoint, a Bangladeshi news agency reported. The gift comes at a time when Dhaka has been a little dismayed due to the delay in delivery of second doses of vaccines to Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a warm gesture, sent the seasonal fruit as a “souvenir of the friendship between the two countries,” Anupam Chakma, deputy commissioner of Benapole customs, said.
Mohammed Samiul Quader, the first secretary of the deputy high commission of Bangladesh in Kolkata, received the mangoes on the other side.
According to reports, the gift consignment will be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister once it clears all customs and port formalities.
Bangladeshi media reported that Hasina planned to send mangoes to chief ministers in northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, all of which share borders with Bangladesh.
(Manas Dasgupta)