Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today chaired a meeting of Apex Level Approval Committee (ALAC) for overseeing the Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory.
Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo; Additional Chief Secretary Finance Department, Vivek Bhardwaj, Principal Secretary, Skill Development Department, Asgar Samoon, senior officers of Agriculture Production Department & NRLM and representative of J&K Bank, NABARD and SKUAST-J/K attended the meeting in person and through virtual mode.
At the outset, a detailed presentation was given by Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Production Department, Atal Dulloo where he briefed the meeting about the broad contours of PMFME Scheme.
The meeting was informed that three Common Incubation Centres (CICs) are being established‐‐one each in Baramulla, Anantnag and Jammu districts of the UT and where under One District One Product (ODOP) theme: Apple, Fish and Dairy processing lines are being setup at an estimated cost of around Rs 6.68 crore.
The meeting was also told that these CICs are likely to be commissioned by end of August, 2022.
During the meeting, it was also highlighted that an amount of Rs 30.58 lakh was provided as seed capital to 105 Self Help Groups (SHGs) under the programme through SRLM for upgradation of units involved in Food Processing.
It was also brought out that District Resource Persons (DRPs) have been nominated for all the districts who have been entrusted with the task of preparing and submitting DPRs under the Scheme.
The Approval Committee was informed that 28 food processing units of different categories have been established under the programme.
On the occasion, the Committee approved the Project Implementation Plan for the financial years 2022-23, 2023-24 & 2024-25, for an amount of Rs 5778.76 lakh. Further, it was informed that under this programme around 1500 individual units in food processing sector are proposed to be established or upgraded across the UT in a span of three years thus providing employment to huge chunk of young entrepreneurs, besides providing seed capital to 300 members of SHGs per year.
On the occasion, J&K Bank was instructed to expedite sanction and disbursement of loan cases of all the cases pending with the bank under PMFME Scheme.