Says chief secretaries asked to uninterrupted manufacturing of food products and movement of same besides free passage to employees
Chandigarh, March 26, 2020: Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today disclosed that a Grievance Redressal Cell had been established in her ministry to ensure problems faced by food processors during the COVID-19 lockdown were resolved at the earliest.
In a statement here, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said industry members facing any problem in operations and distribution of food products could send their inquiry to covidgrievance-mofpi@gov.in . She said besides this, the ministry was committed to ensure the continuity of agro-food business, for which a Business Immunity Platform www.investindia.gov.in/bip had been designed as a comprehensive resource to help business and investors get real-time support to ensure hassle free operations.
Mrs Badal also disclosed that directions had been issued to all chief secretaries that uninterrupted manufacturing of food products was critical for maintaining supply chain and availability of food to the population. She said they had been asked to ensure availability of raw materials, packaging materials, movement of trucks carrying them, functioning of warehouses and cold storages and ability of workers to come and work in the factories and warehouses for maintaining food supply chain for the general population.
The union minister said chief secretaries had been asked to instruct District Collectors, Police and Transport officials to enable continued functioning of food products’ factories, movement of their products and raw materials and allowing workers to attend these factories. She said the officers had also been asked to nominate a Nodal Officer at the State level with whom the Ministry and industry could raise instances of supply chain disruptions for effective resolution on the field.