Jute industry seeks Sonia's intervention

Faced with the twin problem of a government-imposed 25 per cent dilution on food grain and sugar packaging and the prospect of less arrival of raw jute in the market owing to poor monsoon this year, the jute lobby is now desperately urging the Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene on their behalf with the UPA government to rescue the jute industry from the present crisis. After lobbying in vain with the union government for the same for the last two weeks, the Indian Jute Mills' Association (IJMA) has now approached Sonia Gandhi.

In a letter written on August 5, Sanjay Kajaria, chairman of IJMA, has made an emotional appeal to Sonia Gandhi reminding her of the proactive 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 IJMA argued that it was at the instance of Rajiv Gandhi that the "Jute Packaging Materials Act (JPMA) was effected to protect this sector." 

The expressed reason for making this appeal to Sonia Gandhi is that recently the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) has recommended a 25 per cent dilution on food grain and sugar packaging for the year 2009-10, which would be followed by similar recommendation from the union ministry of textiles. Now, before the UPA government makes a final decision on this line, the IJMA wants Sonia to intervene and put a stop on it.

Giving a detailed account of the present condition of the jute industry, the IJMA has made a fervent appeal to Sonia Gandhi. It reminded her that if the recommendation is endorsed by the government, it would cause a huge loss of jobs in jute industry and affect the jute cultivation leading to further cut in jobs there.

Earlier, the jute 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.