The food manufacturing companies supplied 48 truckloads totalling 157 metric tonnes of various food products like noodles, biscuits, bread, milk powder, ready-to-eat food products to the flood affected Chennai region. Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal, in a meeting held today with the Senior Executives of the leading food manufacturing companies, appreciated the commendable efforts made by them in providing relief material to the flood affected people of Tamil Nadu, in particular Chennai. Shri Suresh Narayanan, CEO & Shri L. Balaji of Nestle India, Shri Sanjay Sharma, CEO of MTR Foods, Siva Nagarajan, CEO of Mother Dairy, Varun Berry, MD of Britannia, Shri Gulshan Kalra, ED of Coca-Cola India, Sanjiv Puri, ED & V.L. Rajesh, RM of ITC Ltd., Shri Sunil Duggal, VP of Pernod Ricard, Kadeer Khan, Director of Bisleri and Jasbir Singh Bajaj, PRC, Government of Tamil Nadu attended the meeting.
On an appeal made by the Minister of Food Processing Industries Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, food manufacturing companies had supplied ready-to-eat food material and packaged drinking water for the flood affected people of Tamil Nadu. The 157 metric tones of various food products included supplies made by M/s Nestle India (55.18 MT), M/s Britannia (14.35MT), M/s ITC (33.08MT), M/s Pernod Ricard (12 MT), M/s MTR Group (10.05MT), M/s Parle (26.35 MT), M/s Mother Dairy Fruits and Vegetables Ltd (4 MT) & M/s Savorite Ltd (2 MT)] and 80,000 litres of packaged drinking water [M/s Pepsico India (12,000 Ltrs), M/s Coca-Cola India (50,000 Ltrs) and M/s Bisleri Ltd (18,000 Ltrs).
Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal also thanked the companies for extending their wholehearted and timely support in the hour of unprecedented crisis faced by the people of Tamil Nadu/Chennai on her call. She also thanked CII, FICCI, PHDCCI, ASSOCHAM, AIFPA & others for the efforts made by them in providing relief material for Tamil Nadu. The Industry representatives lauded the efforts of the Ministry officials and the officials of Tamil Nadu Government who worked day & night to co-ordinate the said relief work with them.
The Minister appreciated the fact that many companies delayed their commercial shipments and diverted food articles for Chennai.Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, an Institute under this Ministry, also arranged relief material from its students and faculty including bread loaves, buns, water packets and blankets and handed over the same to the District Disaster Management Cell of Thanjavur. The Food Processing Minister conveyed her gratitude to the food processing fraternity for rising to the occasion and making timely & efficient endeavor in providing necessary humanitarian assistance at the time of crisis and hoped that it would continue to do so whenever such needs arise in future. The Industry captains also assured the Minister that they would always be ready to work with the Ministry in all its endeavors to meet any crisis and challenges in future as well.