JAMMU: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, today emphasised on developing better synergy between the indenting departments and financial institutions for enhanced access to credit in favor of individual beneficiaries under different government schemes.
He made these remarks while speaking in a meeting to review the Pradhan Mantri formalization of the micro-food processing enterprise scheme.
The meeting was attended by ACS, Agriculture Production Department; Principal Secretary, Skill Development Department; Secretary in APD; Special Secretary, APD; MD, JKRLM; MD, HP&M; Director Agriculture, Jammu/Kashmir; Director Horticulture, Jammu/Kashmir, Director, Animal Husbandry, Jammu/Kashmir and many other concerned officers.
Dr Mehta impressed upon the officers to hold the DLC meetings regularly. He told them to hold deliberations over all issues faced by them in such meetings to iron out the differences between them. He asked them to be on the same page about the smooth implementation of the scheme and meeting its objectives.
He enjoined upon them to lessen the rejection of applications and work out for improving the quality of applications. He advised them to make the best out of such schemes as these offer opportunities for everyone including the financial institutions to do business.
The Chief Secretary encouraged the department to take the formalization of the important sector of food processing a notch higher by bringing in better practices for value addition and marketing of the products. He made out that this formalization should lead to the upscaling of both capital and employment generation in these units.
The ACS, APD, Atal Dulloo gave a detailed overview of this scheme and the impediments faced during its implementation. He gave out that the same would aid in accomplishing the dream of a self-reliant India by promoting local food-based enterprises.
It was revealed that the scheme aims at providing smooth access to credit, and integration with organised supply chain by giving support in branding & marketing and providing support for the transition of existing enterprises into a formal framework.
It also enables applicants to have access to common services like common processing facilities, laboratories, storage, packaging, marketing, and incubation services. Strengthening of institutions, research, and training in the food processing sector and increased access of enterprises to professional and technical support, as was added during the meeting.
Moreover credit linked grants @ 35% to individuals, proprietorship firms, partnership firms, FPOs, NGOs, SHGs, Co-operatives, Pvt. Ltd. companies with max. ceiling of Rs. 10 lakhs can be availed under it. A Seed Capital of Rs 40,000 per member to the SHG Federation can also be availed under it. Regarding marketing & branding a grant of up to 50% to groups or an SPV for ODOP, as well as Non-ODOP products, is also provided under this scheme.
The meeting was further informed that the establishment of 3 Common Incubation Centres (CICs) at Narwal, Sopore, and Anantnag have been completed in the UT under it for the products designated under ODOP for these districts. In addition, 2 more are under the pipeline for districts Budgam and Ramban.
The components for CICs include infrastructure, plant & machinery, food testing laboratories, and providing other accessories and amenities for the stakeholders, as was divulged in the meeting. Pertinent to mention here that GoI has approved an outlay of Rs 25.96 Cr for the year 2022-23 for the UT.
