A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pitch for wide-scale adoption of local products to revive the COVID-hit economy, Home Minister Amit Shah informed that only "Made in India" products will be sold in paramilitary canteens from June 1. "The Ministry of Home Affairs has decided that all the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) canteens will now sell only indigenous products. This will be applicable to all CAPF canteens across the country from June 1, 2020. With this, 50 lakh families of about 10 lakh CAPF personnel will use swadeshi products," Shah tweeted.
Paramilitary canteens record around Rs 2,800 crore in sales annually. The CAPF includes the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), National Security Guard (NSG) and Assam Rifles.
Announcing the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package on Tuesday, the prime minister made an appeal to make the country self-reliant and use local products. The prime minister said from today every Indian has to become "vocal for their local", not only to buy local products, but also to promote them proudly.
Time, the prime minister said, has taught us that "we must make the local as a mantra of our life". "The global brands were sometimes also very local like this. But when people started using them, started promoting them, branding them, and felt proud of them, they became global from local products," he said.
Modi said he is confident that the country can do this. "Your efforts have increased my reverence for you every time ... When I requested you to buy khadi ... It was also said that the country's handloom workers should be supported. The demand and sales of both khadi and handloom have reached record levels in a very short time. Not only that, you also made it a big brand. There was a very small effort, but the result was very good," he said.