‘Pursuing GI tag for Mithila Makhana’

PATNA: Bihar’s agriculture minister Amarendra Pratap Singh on Wednesday informed the Legislative Council that the state government was pursing the application for allocation of geographical indication (GI) tag for makhana, produced in the Mithila region in abundance, with the central government.

Singh was replying to a call attention motion of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Arjun Sahni, who alleged that farmers were not getting the appropriate return to their produce in the absence of GI tag.

A huge number of farmers in Mithila region are engaged in production of makhana (fox nuts) on water bodies and selling them to local traders for processing and supplying it to other states and abroad.

The agriculture minister said that the Bihar Agriculture University, Sabour (Bhagalpur), has sent a formal application to accord GI tag to makhana as “Mithila Makhana” to the Geographical Indication Registry office in Chennai in September last year. “Officials are in touch with the registry office, which stated that the process was on to grant the GI tag to Makhana,” said Singh.

The minister said both Central and state governments were encouraging farmers to grown high-yield varieties of makhana under various schemes. “Farmers engaged in production of high-yield varieties of makhanas are being offered credit-linked assistance grant up to 35% of up to ₹10 lakh under the scheme Makhana Vikas Yojna,” said Singh.

PMC faces fire

Earlier in the day, leaders cutting across the party lines lashed out at the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the urban development department for their alleged lackadaisical approach to make the capital city free from recurring waterlogging. Sanjay Prakash alias Sanjay Mayukh of BJP, Sanjiv Kumar Singh of Janata Dal United, Kedar Nath Pandey of CPI, Prem Chandra Mishra of Congress and Ram Chandra Purbe of RJD, through different questions, highlighted improper and inadequate drainage facilities and blamed recurring waterlogging in Patna on callous negligence on the part of agencies.

Deputy CM Tar Kishore Prasad, who also holds the charge of urban development department, assured of action against agencies failing to repair the roads after building drains. Prasad said a comprehensive drainage plan was being made for seamless disposal of storm water.