New Delhi: The much hyped Swadeshi products drive came a cropper in the Central Armed Police Forces canteens when a DIG rank officer delisted 1,000 purportedly ‘nonswadeshi' products. These included, much to the annoyance of the Ministry of Home Affairs, indigenous ‘Made in India’ brands like Bajaj, Godrej, Dabur, VIP Industries, Eureka Forbes, Jaguar, HUL (foods) and Nestle India, reports India Today.com. The MHA had issued a diktat on May 13 that all the canteens will keep on their shelves only 'swadeshi' products from June 1, as part of the PM Modi’s larger ‘Atam Nirbharta’ initiative.
Embarrassed at the manner in which the order was misconstrued, the ministry has now put it on back burner and promised that a revised list of swadeshi items will be released soon. The news portal cited an officer who has explained in his letter that the product categorization had been done on the basis of information provided by the firms themselves. However, an insider has revealed that stocks worth crores are lying in CAPF canteens due to the lockdown and cannot be returned.
The decision to go "Swadeshi" was taken in a hurry and implemented without any application of mind, it is pointed out. The avowed move aims at promoting local products, empowering farmers and strengthening village industries to make India ‘Atmanirbhar’, a call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said a Khadi and Village Industries Commission statement. The CAPF canteens do an estimated business worth Rs 2,800 crore annually by selling their products to 50 lakh family members of about 10 lakh personnel of these forces tasked for a variety of internal security duties. As a goodwill gesture, the KVIC has decided to supply products to the CAPF canteens at a small margin of 3 per cent. The supplies of local products will impact the production and sale of thousands of KVIC supported units.
