To ensure marketing support to the piggery farmers, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today decided to set up a state-of-the-art pig meat processing plant in the state.This decision was taken by Mr. Badal while presiding over a meeting with the delegation of piggery farmers and senior officers of the Animal Husbandry Department to address related to the marketing of pigs’ meat so as to enhance their profitability here at Punjab Bhawan this afternoon.The Chief Minister directed the Additional Chief Secretary Animal Husbandry to find a suitable site in the state so that the proposal to establish a meat processing plant could be implemented in the right earnest. He also asked the Animal Husbandry Department to take up the matter with UT Administration of Chandigarh to allow the processing of pig meat to our pig farmers in Chandigarh till the new plant was established in the state.Taking part in the deliberations, the delegation informed the Chief Minister that though the pig farming had picked up but still they were not getting the desired prices prevalent in Nagaland and thus deprived of enough profit.
The pig farmers told they could only be benefitted after the state’s own meat processing plant becomes operational.The Chief Minister asked the Chairman PSPCL to ensure the strict implementation of power supply in all the pig farms at par with existing Agriculture tariffs. Likewise, he also directed the Excise & taxation Commissioner not levy VAT on the pig feed as already decided by the state government.The pig farmers thanked the Chief Minister with whose intervention; the Union Railways Minister had considerably reduced the freight charges on each rack by Rs. 90,000 for transporting pigs from Punjab to Dimapur (Nagaland). With this decision, the pig farmers would have to now pay Rs. 1.95 lac instead of Rs. 2.85 lac per rack.Earlier, the Additional Chief Secretary Animal Husbandry updated Mr. Badal about the status of pig development in Punjab and said earlier the pig rearing was in the hands of poor strata of the society and the people used to keep just three to four pigs in small enclosures. Now with the passage of time, piggery profession was being adopted even by the affluent section of the society on commercial lines. He informed that there were nearly 400 progressive piggery farmers in the state.Prominent amongst those who were present in the meeting included Advisor Animal Husbandry Dr. BK Uppal, Additional Chief Secretary Animal Husbandry Mr. Mandeep Singh Sandhu, Special Principal Secretary to CM Mr. KJS Cheema, Excise & taxation Commissioner Mr. Rajat Aggarwal, Director Animal Husbandry Mr. HS Sandha, Director Dairy Development Mr. Inderjit Singh, CMD Punjab State Power Corporation Mr. KD Chaudary.