December 8, 2014
Trinamool protests in Parliament for saving the jute industry
Trinmool Congress carried out protests on the steps of the Parliament today against the Centre’s decision of drastically reducing the reserved percentage of jute packing material under the Jute Packaging Materials Act, 1987.
The protests were carried out to save 4 lakh jute mill workers and 40 lakh jute growers from starvation.
Jute Packeging Materials Act
Under the Jute Packaging Materials (Compulsory Use of Packing Commodities) Act 1987, the Government of India has consistently reduced the mandatory provisions from 100% for food grains and sugar in 2011-12 to 90% and 20% respectively in 2013-14 citing inadequate supply.
Furthermore, if the above mentioned reduction is carried out, Rs 8,000 crore will be sucked out of our economy – Rs 3,000 crore paid as wages to the workers of the jute industry and Rs 5,000 crore paid to the raw jute growers of our State.
Sick units
The Ministry of Textiles states that it provides MSP to encourage jute farming. However the fact is, the present price system does not support the jute farmers. The jute mills are in dire state. Five units of National Jute Corporation Ltd and others had been declared sick during the last 10 years though three of them are now part of the revival scheme. They continue to function with a lot of losses.
TMC MPs protest outside Parliament gate against the loss of livelihood of jute workers
The government must urgently look into this matter in order to support jute farmers, jute mills and prevent large scale unemployment. The government must also change the provisions under JPM Act, 1987 for mandatory jute packaging for food grains and sugar to 100%.
Our demands to the Government are:
To save 4 lakh jute mill workers from starvation.
To save 40 lakh jute growers from extinction.
To prevent dilution of jute bag packing for food grains.
To adhere to Jute Packaging Materials Act, 1987 in letter and spirit.
To scrap dilution of compulsory packing- save jute industry.
