Govt slowing work on purpose: Harsimrat

LUDHIANA: Taking stock of the progress in the yet-to-start Mega Food Park at Ladhowal, Union minister for food processing and industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal gave a dressing down to the officials of the Punjab agro industries over the delay in floating tenders and ordering equipment for the project.

She said the project costing ₹118 crore (including Centre’s ₹50 crore share) was approved in 2015 with a 30-month deadline, but it is still not complete just because of the “vested interests of the current state government” that fears Akalis may take credit for the project even as the delay is causing loss to the state exchequer.

“The project was to be completed by May 2018, but it hasn’t started yet in earnest,” she said.

During a video presentation of

projects and their status at Food Park in Ladhowal, Harsimrat pointed out how tenders for a spiral freezer component and processing line were issued only recently, 10 months after the decision was taken in a review meeting. “You floated tenders in 2019…the issue was discussed in a review meeting in March 2018,” she told the officials of the agro department.

“I was told today that the tender for both components have been floated three days back. This

was done after receiving information about my visit, which proves that the state government is keen on delaying the project,” she said.

The minister lost her cool when she was told that equipment for the food testing lab and incubation centre were yet to be ordered. The officials told her that it will be done soon, to which she retorted, saying, “Very soon means what?..your very soon takes a whole year.”

She also expressed anger at the unused cold chain at the park. “Why are you not storing ‘aloo (potatoes)’ here? People are throwing potatoes on the road. Had this been complete, we could have utilised it by asking the growers to store potatoes here,” she said.”

On noticing the dry warehouse lying vacant, she questioned as to why it is not being used to store wheat. “Why not give it on rent and derive income from the same, like private companies do. Because it is a government project, nothing will happen?” she said.

Harsimrat said she managed to bring companies like Godrej, Meat Masters and Balaji Foods to set up their plants at the Food Park but the project is being delayed ‘on purpose’.

She also stated that she has sent various communications to the Punjab CM to speed up the work on the project, but to no avail.