Unpacking a mystery

The mystery surrounding the sudden change in a government release on the jute packaging order for 2011-2012 from 90 per cent at noon to 100 per cent by night-time refuses to die down. Mandatory norms oblige producers of foodgrain and sugar to package their entire produce in jute bags. With jute bags in short supply this year, both industries demanded that these stringent norms be eased so that they could explore other options.

Predictably, the Trinamool Congress strongly opposed any dilution on the grounds that lakhs of jute farmers in West Bengal, the country’s biggest producing state, will be impacted. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also raised the issue with the prime minister on one of her visits. The food and textiles ministries, however, strongly favoured a dilution. This might have caused all the confusion with the original release stating the norms had been diluted and the government quickly withdrawing it. After all, the UPA can ill afford to antagonise one of its key allies over a relatively minor issue.