Jute body regrets non-announcement of state jute policy

The Indian Jute Mills Association, a premier body of the jute industry, today expressed regret that the West Bengal government was yet to come out with the proposed jute policy to aid the mill-owners facing falling demand.
"We told the government at the meeting held in June that the state should come out with a policy by which jute bags could be used in the packaging of levy rice and potatoes," Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) chairman Raghavendra Gupta said.
The meeting, which was attended by state finance minister Amit Mitra, was held immediately after the killing of the CEO of Northbrook Jute Mill.

After the meeting Mitra had assured them that the government would come out with a policy which would benefit the industry, he told reporters here today.
Gupta said the procurement agencies of the state government were not buying jute bags as mandated by the Jute Packaging Materials (JPM) Act for packing levy rice although they were being compensated for the same by the Centre.
Instead, these agencies were either buying from outside sources like Nepal and Bangladesh or using plastics.

Had the state agencies bought these from the mills, the demand for jute bags would have risen by 1.20 lakh bales for levy rice and two lakh bales for non-levy rice sold by the rice mills in the open market, Gupta said.

For potatoes, although not included in JPM Act, the body had demanded that the state government should allow jute bags for packing purposes.
In such a case, the demand for jute bags would be 200 million pieces.
Gupta said in view of the dilution of the JPM Act by the Textiles Ministry, these additional demands could raise the existing production levels of the jute mills.
He said almost all the operational mills in the state were facing a fall of demand for which production levels were curtailed by 35 per cent.
IJMA had written to both the Textiles and Food ministries for 100 per cent packaging of rice and sugar using jute bags only and not plastics.