The Hindu Business Line : Poll panel `no' to ginger processing plant opening

THE Election Commission has intervened to force postponement of the inauguration of the fresh ginger processing plant that the Regional Research Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram (RRL-T) had offered to hand over to the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Ltd (Neramac) and commission at Byrnighat in Meghalaya.

The Governor of Assam was scheduled to hold the formal inauguration of the processing plant on April 7, Wednesday. A regret letter from the Managing Director, Neramac, addressed to the ADC to Governor of Assam said that the inauguration had been postponed on account of instructions from the Chief Election Commissioner.

Neramac promised to get back to the Governor's office citing the earliest convenient date. Similar instructions had been received from the Secretary to the Department of North Eastern Region Affairs, Neramac said.

The CEC directive has come in the wake of specific complaint lodged by a candidate fighting elections from Assam, sources in RRL-T said.

The proposed ginger processing plant has capacity to process five tonnes of ginger per day. The technology, developed in-house by the Agro-Processing Division, has generated a lot of enquiries from the region and the North Eastern Development Council has promised to replicate the same in all seven States.

After Manipur, this is the second so-called `Swing' Technology-based plant to come up in this region. Meghalaya is the second largest producer of ginger in the country, after Kerala. RRL-T is actively considering setting up another plant in Ladakh.

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