Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal while addressing a press conference on the activities undertaken during the Swachchhta Pakhwada said that time has come to show by act and not only by words that cleanliness is next to godliness. Highlighting the objective of “Swachchh Bharat Mission”, the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi to make India clean by the year 2019; the year when we celebrate Gandhiji’s 150th birth anniversary, Hon’ble Minister said that the goal of “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat” can not be achieved without ensuring total cleanliness of our offices, schools, colleges, villages, cities, rivers etc. She also exhorted everyone to contribute in achieving this goal. Smt. Badal further said that we are integrating swachchhata into our schemes and promoting the concept of swachchh abattoir in Shimla, which will be implemented in other projects in the coming time.As a part of the Government’s initiative to observe Swachchhta Pakhwada during 16-31 October, 2016, Ministry of Food Processing Industries also organized various special events during the Pakhwada through active involvement of the officials and other stakeholders of the ministry. A special Swachchhta Pledge taking event, Essay & Debate Competitions for employees of MoFPI and Special drive for weeding out of old files/papers as per the Government norms was organized by the ministry.
In a meeting held in Panchsheel Bhawan that houses the ministry, Secretary, FPI, Shri Avinash Srivastava sensitized the promoters of Cold Chain Projects on the importance of Swachchhta and hygiene in their project area. NIFTEM, a deemed university under MoFPI, organized events like street vendors sensitization camps, cleanliness and hygiene drive in campus, hostel and a swachchhta awareness rally. IICPT at Thanjavur, another institution under the ministry, observed Swachchhta Pakhwada through cleanliness drive, beautification and tree planting activities within the campus and organized activities like Essay Competition, Workshops, Food Safety awareness camp for street vendors, skits etc., for highlighting benefits of swachchhta. Industry bodies like CII, PHD Chamber of Commerce and ASSOCHAM organised several programmes and workshops to create awareness on good hygiene practices.The Minister also launched web based system for submission of documents for release of grant-in-aid under Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure. Launching the software, the minister said that this robust e- Governance tool for online filing of claim for release of grant to a project this is an important initiative towards “Digital India” campaign. Smt. Badal said that it will help in effective monitoring of progress of the project and also ensure transparency in disbursal of funds to implementing agencies alongwith reduction of supporting documents, paper-work. Earlier, in June, 2016, similar software was launched for the Mega Food Park Scheme. Based on the experience gained, the software has been upgraded and now launched for the Cold Chain scheme also. It is an investor friendly initiative taken by the ministry. The minister also launched the new look website of the Ministry.