The Union Minister of Textiles, Shankersinh Vaghela has inaugurated the Diversified Jute and Woollen products Expo at Dakor, District Kheda, in Gujarat today.
While inaugurating the Expo, the Minister announced that UPA government had revived the Jute sector. The first National Jute Policy was announced in April 2005 and the Jute Technology Mission, at an estimated cost of Rs 3.55bn was launched in February 2007, said Vaghela.
The Minister said, "We propose to set up 10 jute parks by 2012, of which four parks have already been short listed, three in West Bengal and one in Rajasthan. The National Jute Board Bill, which will synergize the functioning of various bodies engaged in jute sector, has been recently passed by the Parliament."
Vaghela also said that 40 parks are being set up throughout the country under the Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks, SITP which will attract an investment of Rs. 215.02bn, create employment both direct and indirect for 9.08 lakh workers and produce goods worth Rs. 381.15bn annually. Seven parks are being set up in Gujarat at Surat (5), Kutch (1) and Kheda (1). These parks will attract an investment of Rs. 30.35bn, generate employment both direct and indirect for 98 thousand workers and produce goods worth Rs. 65.97bn annually.
Vaghela said that the cotton is the main stay of our textiles industry and with the launching of Technology Mission on Cotton and introduction of Bt Cotton seed, and due to the focused support provided by the UPA government the cotton situation has radically improved.
He said, "Our production has reached a level of 31.15 min bales in the cottons season 2007-08, and it is estimated that it will reach a record level of 32.20 million bales, in the cotton season of 2008-09 and yield will reach 591 kg per hectare this cotton season. We have raised the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of cotton by 40% during the cotton season of 2008-09, a record, and so far we had procured 55 lakh cotton bales including 6 lakh bales from Gujarat".
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