Kolkata, Apr 19 (PTI) Asserting that the jute industry is on the verge of collapse, endangering the livelihood of three crore people engaged in this sector, Trinamool Congress Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, sought the intervention of the Centre to resolve the crisis.
For this situation, Ray blamed the Jute Commissioner’s Office which looks after orderly development and promotion of the industry in India.
The Rajya Sabha MP wrote separate letters to Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Textile Minister Piyush Goyal seeking their help to resolve the problem.
He claimed that 60,000 workers have lost their jobs following the closure of 15 jute mills owing to raw jute crisis allegedly due to government diktat on pricing.
“From November 2021, the Jute Commissioner’s Office is engaged in an unhealthy battle with Bengal’s jute industry on the capping of raw jute price at Rs 6500 per quintal while the industry demand is Rs 7200 per quintal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has publicly opposed the cap imposed by the Jute Commissioner on 30 September 2021 but it has not been removed,” Ray said in the letters. The state government had also requested the Commissioner to raise the ceiling to Rs 7200 a quintal, he said.
“Instead of searching for a solution, the Jute Commissioner, for the past few months, is engaged in a legal battle with the jute industry,” the TMC MP said.
Ray highlighted that the 2022-23 report of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices also painted a gloomy picture saying acreage of jute has been declining for the last three years and supply has been reduced by 11 per cent.
The stock to user ratio (SUR) has also fallen by 84 per cent and jute yield is stagnant for the last five years. There is a 70 per cent shortage of credible jute seeds needed for robust cultivation, he said.
Ray urged both the ministers to intervene and save cultivators, workers and the jute industry as a whole in public interest. PTI BSM NN NN