Mega Food Park project irks village council in Dimapur

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, May 31 (EMN): A food processing project segment of the central government in Nagaland in the form of the long-touted Mega Food Parks (MFP) is causing concerns for a village in Dimapur district. The village,  Bamunpukhuri 1, concerned with questions of proper spacing for an approach road that is said to be flanked by an upcoming food park nearby. Besides, other associated concerns which community leaders of the affected village are expressing apprehensions about include environment and pollution.

The government of India is undertaking a project to instate 42 food parks across the country one of which is for Nagaland.

Various government updates including an administrative report of the state’s department of Industries and Commerce, and funds data of the ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) state the information.

According to available government updates, a firm called the DoysAgri Resources Pvt. Ltd., at Dimapur has been sanctioned INR 49.24 cr. for the project to be set up at Doshehe village that borders with another village, Bamunpukhuri 1.

The head GB of Bamunpukhuri 1, Bimal Jigdong, and the chairman of the village, Vikishe, spoke to Eastern Mirror. They said that DoysAgri Resources has not complied with a resolution of the council that was said to have been submitted to the company. The ‘resolution’ was that there be left an area of 24 feet width, 12 feet on both sides from the centre of the approach road connecting about 12 villages.  A boundary wall around the MFP has been built though. Said road was previously known as a ‘three-faced’ circular road — primarily an intersection — under the Forest department.

The chairman of Bamunpukhuri expressed concern at the flow of waste that would be drained from the food park; there are no visible provisions for proper drainage. The chairman added that the boundary of the park “touches two other villages” namely Toluvi and Unity colony. He hinted that the problem of drainage might affect the two areas too.

“We expected the proprietor to come and at least consult the council over these matters as it also concerns the village of Bamunpukhuri 1,” Vikishe said. The chairman raised questions of pollution and other environment-related problems such as “air, noise, water etc.,” which might affect Bamunpukhuri’s environs.

“We want to talk about all these issues which concern us but the proprietor is least bothered,” he complained. Head GB Bimal Jigdong also informed that Doshehe village has no separate map of its own till date and has been included in Bamunpukhuri’s jurisdiction map although ‘a No Objection Certificate has been handed.’

Jidong made known that even though Bamunpukhuri village has inhabitants from all tribes, the village was one of the main ancestral villages of the Kachari community. The council’s members informed that once the four-lane road project starts for their area the only by-pass road would be the aforementioned road connecting 12 other villages.

“The proposed four-lane road is about only half a kilometre away and now all the vehicular movement will be through this road once construction starts,” Jigdong said in apprehension as he made motions gesturing to the size of the road.

In 2015 the then parliamentary secretary for Industries and Commerce Amenba Yaden was reported in the media as having stated that the government of Nagaland had acquired 100 acres of land to set up a Mega Food Park Project at Khopanalla in Dimapur.

The cost projected for the MFP at Doshehe village is informed to have been pegged at INR 77.96 cr. and the amount granted by the centre was stated at INR 49.24 cr. in August 2017, according to the MoFPI. The central ministry’s report stated that an amount of INR 15 cr., an instalment, has been released for the project till date.

Additionally, the department of Industries and Commerce has stated in its annual report that the MFP would provide for state-of-art food processing ‘entrepreneur and producers,’ which would include creation of infrastructure such as collection centres, a primary processing centre, and other processing units at the central processing centre.