Minister of State for Textiles, Santosh Kumar Gangwar after the review meeting held with various stakeholders of the jute sector at Kolkata yesterday, key decision has been taken to strengthen the jute sector. The Ministry for textile has taken decision to make most of the unused assets, such as land, of the three closed mills of NJMC (National Jute Manufactures Corporation Limited) for economic activities. The focus is to generate employment. Activities such as apparel park or textile hub shall be considered.

The Government of West Bengal has been requested to support this initiative, while PricewaterhouseCoopers has been engaged to prepare the roadmap.

Secondly, NJMC to invite entrepreneurs to run Kinnison, Khardah and RBHM jute mills through licence route

Thirdly, National Jute Board (NJB) will intensify development and promotion of diversified jute products. It will provide training of Women's Self Help Groups, including that of groups of Tiger widows in the Sundarban, will be given particular emphasis. Reputed R&D institutes such as IIT Kharagpur, NITRA and IJIRA is being taken. NID (National Institute of Design) has been roped in, to assist in the development of new designs and for setting up of state-of-art design centre for shopping bags and other jute lifestyle products.

Fourthly focus on feminine hygiene products and low-cost carry bags as these products hold a lot of promise. Efforts to commercialize them would be speeded up; all state governments would be requested to support the marketing of these products.

Fifthly, under the collaborative scheme to provide standard housing to jute mill workers were discussed. Ministry of Textiles would support this initiative, while Government of West Bengal has also requested to participate.

Finally to boost demand for jute sacking, Ministry of Textiles is making all-out efforts to persuade state governments to order more jute sacking. Government of West Bengal has requested to procure jute sacking for packaging of paddy/rice and of potatoes/ vegetables. State Government representatives assured that they will sort out the issue in consultation with the jute industry.

Jute is an important crop in West Bengal in the country. Jute Sector occupies an important place in the economy of the country and it fetches thousand crore of rupees per annum to the Government of India by way of exports and lakh people are directly engaged in this sector.