Patna, Feb 1 (IANS): With the Finance Minister’s Union Budget announcing several bonanza and developmental projects for Bihar, the move has drawn praise from the state agriculture minister, who termed the setting up of the Makhana Board as a historic step.
Bihar’s agriculture minister Mangal Pandey hailed the ‘gamechanger’ Makhana Board initiative and said that this will benefit hordes of farmers and villagers.
Bihar, a state ruled by BJP and its key alliance partner JD(U), got repeated mentions in Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech as she went to announce several measures including the Makhana Board, giving wings to Bihar’s aviation industry and also augmenting capacity at higher educational institutions in the state.
Bihar Agriculture Minister said that the Makhana Board will improve production, processing, value addition and marketing of Makhana (fox nuts), an Indian superfood, of which Bihar is the biggest producer.
“On lines of Central rubber board, there was a demand for Makhana Board. On the request of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, we all had requested this from the Centre. When the Union Agriculture Minister came to Patna, we had made this request. Today, the dream of Makhana producers has come true that now Makhana Board will be formed in the country,” he said.
Earlier, in her eighth consecutive budget, the Finance Minister announced several schemes for Bihar which included establishing the National Institute of Food Technology to boost food processing in the Eastern part of the country.
Announcing the formation of the Makhana Board in Bihar, the FM stated that it will provide hand-holding and training support to the Makhana farmers and will also ensure that they have access to all the benefits of government schemes.
Capacity addition at IIT Patna was also among FM’s announcements while she unveiled the government’s plans to augment infrastructure in the existing five IITs.
The Budget allocation for additional investments in the UDAN scheme also found mention of Bihar.
Sitharaman said that the greenfield airports will be facilitated in the state to meet its future needs and these will be in addition to the expansion of the capacity of Patna Airport and Brownfield Airport in Bihta.