Assuming charge of her office as Union Minister for Food Processing Industry, the newly-appointed Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Badal on Tuesday vowed to strengthen the farm economy and increase the farm incomes through value addition, processing.
Among her priorities, Harsimrat said that implementing recommendations of Nanavati Commission, set up to investigate 1984 anti-Sikh riots, would be on top of her list.
“Justice has eluded the victims of 1984 Sikh carnage even after passing of three decades…For the first time, NDA government under the stewardship of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had constituted Nanavati Commission to investigate these riots but unfortunately its report was not implemented by the Congress government. Akali Dal would get this report implemented in letter and spirit to bring all those perpetrators of this heinous crime behind the bars,” said Bathinda MP while interacting with the mediapersons.
Taking over the charge in the presence of senior Akali leadership besides her brother and Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia, Harsimrat was quick to say that the “days of Centre’s discrimination with Punjab have to came to an end with the formation of the NDA government at the Centre”. She added that Punjab would be immensely benefited with the development oriented policies of Narendra Modi Government.
Setting her agenda right, the young and dynamic minister said that her principal task was to strengthen farm economy and dramatically increase the farm incomes through value addition, processing and use high-end global marketing techniques for Indian farm produce.
“As a daughter of Punjab, food production and processing has been one of the most important areas of interest for her and I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving me a chance to look after a ministry which is close to my heart as I belong to a farmer family,” she said.
She said that Modi had discussed his expansive plans to focus on value addition of food and agricultural produce. “There is a scope for starting multinational food chains, especially for Indian ethnic foods like saag, lassi, makki di roti delicacies like corn flakes and corn stalk as well as other preparations from Punjab that have been huge hits with children and youth across the world,” she added.
She said that her mission would be to find new and innovative ways to reduce post harvest losses by facilitating efficient storage and transportation as well as finding ways to increase shelf-life of food products while at the same time ensuring that these processed food products were available to the consumers across the country at reasonable prices.
Harsimrat said that she would welcome all ideas from farmers, industry, consumers and other stake holders to put the country at par with top countries in the area of food processing.