Crisis-hit jute lobby seeks Sonia's help for revival

The country’s jute lobby, which faces the dual threat of a 25 per cent dilution on the government’s foodgrain and sugar packaging order, and the prospect of less arrival of raw jute owing to poor monsoon this year, has sought intervention of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to rescue the industry.

After lobbying in vain with the central government in this regard for the last two weeks, the Indian Jute Millers’ Association (Ijma) has approached Sonia Gandhi. In a letter written on August 5, Ijma Chairman Sanjay Kajaria has made an emotional appeal to the Congress chief, reminding her of the role played by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 to protect the jute industry from the invasion of plastic and other synthetic products as a substitute for jute packaging. The association argued that it was at the instance of Rajiv Gandhi that the “Jute Packaging Materials Act was effected to protect this sector”.

The letter tells her that if the recommendation for 25 per cent dilution on foodgrain and sugar packaging is endorsed by the government, it would result in huge job losses. Earlier, the lobby had appealed to the chief ministers of Assam, Bihar and West Bengal — the three major jute growing states — to take urgent steps to provide water required for retting for raw jute in view of the poor monsoon.