The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the National Institutes of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2019 that confers the status of national importance on two food technology institutes at Kundli in Haryana and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.
Congress leader L. Hanumanthaiah and DMK’s Tiruchi Siva expressed doubts over the implementation of the reservation policy in the institutions. Replying to the debate, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said all policies of national importance would be implemented and reservation would be applicable in the institutes. He also assured that all people working in food technology have representation. The law provides for Parliament to have a say in them too, Mr. Tomar said.
“This bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in February, 2019. Thereafter it was referred to the Standing Committee. There were certain amendments there which were approved by the Cabinet. Now it again came up for discussion in the House.”
Opening the debate earlier, Mr. Hanumanthaiah had pointed out that the government’s target is 3% international food trade as against 1.5% now and at present only 10% of the food is processed in India. He also demanded that the institutes should have provisions for fee waiver to encourage a lot of bright people who would want to enter this industry.
