GUWAHATI: A meeting to review the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme was held in presence of Union Minister of State, Food Processing Industries Rameswar Teli, and Minister of Industries and Commerce Chandra Mohan Patowary at Assam Administrative Staff College, Khanapara on Tuesday.
Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has launched the centrally sponsored PMFME scheme for providing financial, technical and business support for the up-gradation of existing micro food processing enterprises. As a part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the PMFME scheme will assist two lakh micro food processing units spread across the country for five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore. In Assam, the Ministry has targeted to support 12,778 units with a budget allocation of Rs 638.92 crore within five years.
Addressing the stakeholders, Teli said, "It was the target of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries to establish ten Mini Food Parks in Assam during the tenure of five years. Six of them have already been sanctioned for Tinsukia, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Kamrup Metro, Darrang and Karbi Anglong, which are in various stages of implementation. The rest four will be sanctioned soon."
The Industries and Commerce Minister asked the Industry Department officials to take up the food processing sector on a priority basis. He further asked FINER, FICCI and Laghu Udyog Bharati to prepare a roadmap for food processing industries as it is only this sector that can uplift the rural economy.
"There is a huge potentiality of food processing sector in Assam and the focus is on sub-sectors like banana, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, pineapple, oranges etc. and its value-added products," said Patowary.
For the implementation of the scheme, the Industries and Commerce Department is the State Nodal Department and Assam Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) is the State Nodal Agency. The General Managers of the DICCs have been nominated as District Resource Persons (DRP) for facilitating the applicants and raising awareness drives.
Dr KK Dwivedi, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department; Virendra Mittal, PS to the Union Minister; Adil Khan, MD, AIDC; Oinam Saran Singh, Commissioner of Industries; senior officials of Government of India, Government of Assam, industry associations, financial institutions attended and interacted during the meeting, stated a release.