Bhubaneswar, Sept. 25 -- A Rs 17.52-lakh cashew processing unit set up to economically empower Odisha's vulnerable Bonda tribal community has ended up as a sick unit, remaining defunct since 2021-22 with no government plan to revive it, the Odisha Assembly was informed on Friday.
In a written reply, SC and ST Development Minister Nityananda Gond stated that the unit, established at Mudulipada in Khairput block of Malkangiri district in 2017 under the Special Central Assistance (SCA) scheme, was handed over to the Bonda Development Agency (BDA) for operation and management.
It became defunct as its manually operated and obsolete machinery could not compete with automatic cashew processing units in the market. Manual processing also substan...