Food Processing Ministry: Government Claims More Projects Than Sanctioned

#SaalEkShuruaatAnek #NDAOneYear : Key initiatives in Food Processing: pic.twitter.com/YJkg9rVADX
— PIB India (@PIB_India) June 9, 2015

A look at the performance report of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, one year after Narendra Modi took charge as Prime Minister, reveals a string of misleading or incorrect claims.

We emailed our findings to the ministry last week, requesting comment. There was no response.

1. Cold storage facilities: 138 sanctioned, but that's lowest in four years.

Claim: 138 projects sanctioned under cold chain scheme.

Check Revealed: True, a total of 138 investment proposals were received and approved by the Government regarding setting up of cold storage facilities during 2014-15. However, government data since 2011-12 reveal that proposals approved during 2014-15 are the lowest in four years.

Cold Storage: Investment Proposals Received & Approved (2011-12 to 2014-15)
	2011-12		2012-13		2013-14		2014-15
Name of organisation	No.	Value of Investment/ Project Cost (in Rs crore)	No.	Value of Investment/ Project Cost (in Rs crore)	No.	Value of Investment/ Project Cost (in Rs crore)	No.	Value of Investment/ Project Cost (in Rs crore)
Ministry of Food Processing Industries	27	590.6	18	396.1	57	1400.5	-	0
National Horticulture Mission*	117	428.1	106	394.4	95	388.3	83	495.3
National Horticulture Board*#	85	709.6	68	368.1	134	899.3	56	451.4
Total	229	1728.2	192	1158.6	286	2688.1	139	946.7

Source: Lok Sabha; Notes: *Under Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture; #This excludes the component of Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayan States (HMNEH).

State	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Andhra Pradesh	27	16	26	1
Arunachal Pradesh	0	0	1	0
Assam	1	1	3	0
Bihar	6	3	3	0
Chhattisgarh	4	6	4	3
Chandigarh	0	0	0	1
Delhi	0	0	2	0
Goa	0	0	0	0
Gujarat	33	21	28	41
Haryana	7	16	23	10
Himachal Pradesh	4	0	6	4
Jammu & Kashmir	3	1	4	1
Jharkhand	2	2	0	0
Karnataka	3	2	5	3
Kerala	4	0	0	0
Madhya Pradesh	14	15	8	13
Maharashtra	6	10	39	17
Manipur	1	0	0	0
Mizoram	1	1	0	0
Nagaland	0	0	0	0
Odisha	1	1	5	8
Punjab	36	45	21	7
Rajasthan	3	4	13	7
Sikkim	0	0	1	0
Tamil Nadu	0	5	0	2
Tripura	0	0	1	1
Uttar Pradesh	66	37	85	16
Uttarakhand	1	1	8	1
West Bengal	9	6	3	2
Total No. of Projects Approved	232	193	289	138

Source: Lok Sabha; Note: Projects approved by NHB, NHM and MoFPI

2. Projects sanctioned under National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP): 1,078 fewer than claimed

Claim: 1,286 projects sanctioned by state governments and union territories under NMFP during 2014-15.

Check Revealed: The number of projects sanctioned during 2014-15 under NMFP, according to official data, is 208, not 1,286.

The data say 1,428 projects have been sanctioned since the inception of NMFP in 2012-13.

Year	No. of Projects Sanctioned under NMFP
2012-13	746
2013-14	474
2014-15	208
Total	1428

Source: National Mission on Food Processing

NMFP was launched on April 1, 2012, to modernise food-processing industries, establish mega food parks and integrated cold chains, and modernise abattoirs.

The funding pattern for NFMP is 75:25 by the centre and states, respectively. For north-eastern states, the ratio is 90:10. Projects in union territories are given full grants.

2012-13			2013-14			2014-15
Budget Estimate	Revised Estimate	Actual Expenditure	Budget Estimate	Revised Estimate	Actual Expenditure	Budget Estimate	Revised Estimate	Actual Expenditure
250	185.32	182.9	187	30.5	29.72	180	125.32	114.55

Source: Rajya Sabha

3. Mega Food Parks: 17 approved, yes, but 40 were approved by the previous government

Claim: 17 mega food parks sanctioned during 2014-15.

Check Revealed: True, 17 projects have been given “in-principle” approval during 2014-15 but 40 mega food park projects were given “in-principle” approval by the ministry during 11^th Plan (2007-12) and the first two years of the 12^th Plan (till February 2014).

Out of these 40 MFPs, five projects were cancelled till March 2014 due “to their failure to meet conditions of final approval or unsatisfactory implementation of the project”. Nine more projects were cancelled during 2014-15.

As of now, only 21 projects (out of 40) have been accorded final approval for implementation.

Only four of these 21 projects that have final approval are operational.

Therefore, the ratio of projects that are approved and the number that have finally started operations is very small.

Update: The headline has been changed to make it more accurate.

Tomorrow: Rural Development Ministry: Renames Key Scheme, Cuts Funds

You can read the other stories in our series below:

1) Overblown, Misleading Claims By 14 Modi Ministries

2) Agriculture Ministry: Old Schemes Renamed, Other Misleading Claims

3) Health Ministry: New Claims, No New Programmes

4) Power Ministry: Marginal Improvements

5) Railway Ministry: 8 Achievements That Really Aren’t

6) Road Transport Ministry: Continues UPA’s Work, Contradicts Own Data

7) Telecom Ministry: Wrong Claims, Bad Maths

8) Sanitation Ministry: Old Wine, New Bottles

9) Department Of Posts: Old Plans On Track

10) Textiles Ministry: Achievements, Carried Over

11) Tourism Ministry: Unexceptional Claims 12) Ganga Rejuvenation: Many Attempts Over 30 Years

(Manoj K is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and the founder of the Centre for Governance and Development. He has a special interest in transparency and accountability in governance and has spearheaded several projects on these subjects. He can be contacted at manoj@cgdindia.org.)

References:

Fact Check 1