PATNA: Out of power for more than four and a half years, RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son and former health minister Tej Pratap Yadav on Saturday ventured into production and trade of rice, multigrain flour, besan, sattu and some other edible items under 'LR brand' brand.
The LR stands for Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, both Tej’s parents and former chief ministers of Bihar.
Formally launching his products on the occasion of Basant Panchami during a function organized at his official residence at 2, Strand Road here, Tej said he created the platform of LR Rice and Multigrains Private Limited with an aim to help the farmers and provide jobs to unemployed youths. The house at 2, Strand Road, has been allotted to Tej for being an MLA.
A second-time MLA of RJD, Tej also said his new enterprise would reach out to Bihar’s farmers, buy their grains at a fair price and give good returns to them without middlemen coming into their way. He also said his enterprise would procure wheat, rice, maize, millet, jaggery and few other agri products directly from farmers, and would take it to consumers.
“Our theme is ‘Apna Upjao, Apna khao aur Apna kamao (grow yours, eat yours and profit yourself)”, said Tej, who is managing director of the company.
Responding to a query, Tej said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, during the last assembly polls, had promised to provide employment to 19 lakh youths in Bihar. But they (BJP leaders) did not fulfill their promise. “My company will provide employment to youths in a real sense. Many youths will get jobs in our food processing and packaging plants,” he said.
Tej has engaged Patnakart Agro, a Bihar-based agritech platform, for procuring desi grains from the farmers and marketing it to the consumers. “At a time when health experts are advising people to go back to their roots, our drive is a small step in this direction. We have procured famous rice brands like Katarni, Basmati and a whole range of rice varieties from Shahabad region. Some other forgotten grains like ‘Sama ka chawal’, Bajra, Kerao and Kurthi, would also be procured and sold,” the Patnakart’s managing director Abhinav Das told TOI on Saturday.
Earlier it was announced that Tej’s mother and former CM Rabri Devi would launch the products of the LR Rice and Multigrains. But she didn’t turn up at the launching venue.
Tej was Bihar’s health minister from November 2015 to July 2017 in Nitish Kumar-led three-party Grand Alliance government, but came out of power after Nitish resigned as the CM in July 2017 and switched over to the NDA. Tej had earlier launched a business of incense sticks in July last year.
