The Central paramilitary forces’ canteen will sell only Swadeshi/made in India products from June 1 as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of making India self-reliant through “vocal for local” campaign.
Modi had on Tuesday made an appeal to make the country self-reliant and use products made in India. Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday described PM’s appeal as “a guiding light to make India the global leader.”
In keeping with the PM’s call, the Home Ministry has decided that all the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) canteens and stores across the country will now sell only indigenous products, from June 01, 2020.
The total purchase value would be around `2,800 crore. With this decision, 50 lakh family members of about 10 lakh CAPF personnel will use indigenous products.
“You should use the products made in the country as much as possible and encourage others to do the same. This is not the time to be lagging behind, but to turn the crisis into an opportunity,” the Home Minister said in his appeal to the people of the country.
According to Shah, if every Indian pledges to use products made in India (Swadeshi), the country can become self-sufficient in next five years.
“Let us all strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Modi in this journey of making India self-reliant, by using indigenous products,” Shah added.
Earlier, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) was entrusted to design fabric for the 10 lakh strong paramilitary forces like CRPF, BSF, ITBP following a directive from Shah who had stressed introduction of products from the cottage sector.
Last year, Shah had stressed the introduction of cottage products as part of the celebration of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Besides the adoption of the khadi fabric, the paramilitary forces were also asked going to introduce only “swadeshi” origin items manufactured by the khadi sector in messes and canteens.