RM Meena, the CEO of Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar, who on May 29 had issued an order delisting over 1,000 products from central police forces canteens calling them ”non-Swadeshi”, has been repatriated to his parent cadre in the CRPF after the recent incident.
According to the order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Deputy Inspector General Meena has been “recalled” by the Central Reserve Police Force. Rajeev Ranjan Kumar, who is also a DG-level officer in the CRPF will replace Meena as the new CEO of the board with immediate effect for a period of three months.
The office memorandum issued by the Home Ministry on Wednesday stated that KPKB CEO R M Meena was recalled to CRPF on June 1, the day the ‘Swadeshi list’ was withdrawn, “owing to administrative reasons”.
Home Minister’s order
The Home Minister had informed that all the CAPF (Central Armed Police Force) canteens across India will sell only made in India products going forward as a move to make India self-sufficient. He had said that from 1st June 2020 onward, this rule will come into force. The CAPF canteens will not sell foreign-made products henceforth.
Following the decision, Meena, who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Kendriya Police Kalyan Bhandar or the central police welfare stores, had issued a document on May 29 de-notifying 1,026 imported products that were till recently sold from the CAPF canteen network.
The order signed by Meena, had split products into three categories — Category 1 which was the products ‘Purely Made in India’, while Category 2 meant ‘raw materials imported’ but products manufactured or assembled in India. The Category 3 referred to ‘Purely Imported Products’.
The products falling under Category 1 and Category 2 was allowed to be on the KPKB inventory while those falling under Category 3 was de-listed and the sale was not allowed.
However, in a major goof-up, the list published by KPKB had included several Indian companies such as Dabur, Bajaj under imported items and sought to ban the products from CAPF canteens. A huge controversy had erupted following the goof-up resulting in MHA withdrawing the order it had issued.
