Bengal To Help Garment Makers Set Up Ssi Units

The West Bengal government will help garment manufacturers to set up small-scale units using modern technology. The government has set up an institute of fashion technology at Salt Lake to train garment manufacturers. Two more training institutes will come up for fabric design and manufacturing of jute-based fabric.

Pralay Talukdar, minister for cottage and small scale sector, said yesterday that the government expected a boom in the garment manufacturing sector in the country by the year 2000. Calcutta could be the centre of the industry as more areas would be available to the manufacturers to set up units with the withdrawal of polluting industries from the city and its fringe areas. Entrepreneurs from other states are also expected as there is a scarcity of land in other cities.

 

To promote exports by small industries, the government has set up an export promotion board for small scale units manufacturing leather goods, handicrafts and other export items. This measure is aimed at eliminating middlemen from the export business.

Talukdar said before the EPB started functioning, the government would collect data on the main export items of the state in the small scale sector from the district industries centres (DICs). The government would also seek the list of the country's exporters from Delhi. At present, some private parties in central Calcutta are engaged in export of various items produced in the small scale sector including handicrafts.

Meanwhile, the state government has rescheduled the handicrafts expo, 1996-97 as the organisers of the expo required some more time to change the layout plan following the fire at the Calcutta Book Fair. The expo would now be held between February 21 and March 10.

The state government would give a subsidy of around Rs 50 lakh for the event. It is expected that 600 artisans would participate in the expo from different districts of the state.