President inaugurates food park in West Bengal

President Pranab Mukherjee today inaugurated a Mega Food Park at Jangipur in Murshidabad, aimed at providing critical food processing infrastructure to the farmers of this backward belt in West Bengal.

The new food park will minimise the wastage of food products, Mukherjee said after inaugurating the Food Park in the presence of West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and union and state ministers.

Mukherjee's son Abhijeet, the MP from Jangipur, was also present during the function.

The project, considered close to Mukherjee's heart, was accorded in-principle approval in December 2008 and final approval in March 2010. It will benefit the farmers of North 24 Parganas, Birbhum, Malda and Burdwan districts.

Noting that India is second in fruit production after Brazil and next only to China in vegetable production, the President hoped that India would minimise the wastage of food products through projects like this.

He added that the food park will help farmers of the area get better price for their produce.

Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the promise made by the Centre during the UPA government in 2008 has been fulfilled by the NDA government in 2016.

"The Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in food processing units in the Park, generate a turnover of about Rs 500 crore annually and is expected to provide direct and indirect employment to 6,000 people and benefit about 25,000-30,000 farmers in the catchment areas," she said.

Badal said connecting farmers with food processing infrastructure and creating markets are her primary goals so that farmers get remunerative price of their produce.

"Mega Food Park at Jangipur has been set up at a cost of Rs 132.71 crore approximately in an area of 82.11 acres with a grant of Rs 50 crore provided by my ministry," she added. The food park is equipped with industrial sheds for SMEs,
developed industrial plots for lease to food processing units and facilities of 8,000 MT warehouse, 5,000 MT multi-crop cold storage, 10,000 MT potato cold storage, IQF and Pulping line of 1.5 tonne per hour each, 3,000 MT deep freeze and quality control lab.

Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, ministers of West Bengal government and state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were also present.

Later, Mukherjee attended the first convocation of Management Development Institute-Murshidabad at Jangipur before returning to New Delhi after a three-day visit to West Bengal.

Speaking at the convocation, the President said he had taken the initiative for establishing the institute when he represented the area in Parliament.

He said his dream was that the people of Murshidabad be well informed and well educated so that they can take their rightful place in the country.

Noting that technology is the key to advancement, he said, "we have created good infrastructure in our higher educational system, hardly any of the Indian Universities find place in the top global rankings."

Stating that two Indian institutions of higher learning were ranked among the top 100 in the world in 2015, Mukherjee hoped that more institutions would figure high in the rankings in the future.

"We should emphasise on research and innovation. Progress is not possible without a knowledge society. Knowledge leads to technology and technology to prosperity," he added.