Jute is a long,
soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is
produced from plants in the genus Corchorus. The primary source of the fiber is
Corchorusolitorius, - "Jute" is the name of the plant or fiber that
is used to make burlap, Hessian or gunny cloth.
Jute, the natural fiber is second only to cotton in amount produced and
variety of uses of vegetable fibres. Jute is also called "the golden
fiber" for its color and high cash value.
In India, it is
produced in big numbers – way back in 1971, an official agency of the Govt of
India – the Jute Corporation of India Ltd was set up with the aim to provide
minimum support price (MSP) to the jute cultivators and also work as a helping
hand in the raw jute sector. What
initially started as a small agency expanded its network to many states.
Jute
is now in news for wrong reasons as jute bags meant for packaging of foodgrains
under the Public Distribution System (PDS) allegedly provided their
manufacturers — in league with some officials of procuring State government
agencies, quality insurance inspectors and middlemen — an opportunity to siphon
off thousands of crores in government revenue.
The Hindu reports that PMO has taken serious note of it and the Central Bureau of Investigation has
been directed by the Union Textiles Ministry to inquire into the allegations.
An investigation has been launched.
Government
sources told The Hindu that at PDS packaging centres, new unbranded bags were
being replaced with used ones. The new ones were diverted to middlemen who sold
them off to clients and mills in other States at half the government price.This
was recently noticed by Textiles Ministry officials in Haryana and Punjab, from
where jute bag consignments were being allegedly diverted to Odisha, Telangana,
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The stolen bags did not carry the name and
licence number of the manufacturers.
As
the biggest buyer, the government purchases about 9 lakh tonnes of jute sacks
to pack foodgrains. State government agencies procure bags worth about Rs.
5,000 crore every year. The current government procurement rate is Rs.43 per
bag, while in the open market it sell for Rs.15-20.It has been alleged that
bags supplied to a State would find their way back to the mills, which sold
them once again to the government.
Today’s
The Hindu writes that the Union Textiles
Ministry has unearthed a major racket in large-scale import of cheap jute bags
from Nepal and Bangladesh by Indian manufacturers, many of whom were supplying
these to government agencies after putting their own seals.The Jute Packaging
Materials (Compulsory Use in Packing Commodities) Act, 1987, mandates that jute
bags supplied to government agencies for packaging foodgrains and sugar under
the Public Distribution System (PDS) must be manufactured by the supplier,
using only domestically produced raw jute.But with many Indian manufacturers
surreptitiously supplying cheap imported jute bags, their prices have plummeted
in the domestic market, adversely affecting lakhs of farmers and jute mill
workers across the country. The current government procurement price is Rs.43 a
bag, while the imported ones cost Rs.30-35 in the open market.
“An
estimated two lakh bales (each containing 500 bags) are imported every year,”
said a senior government official. So there reportedly has been rampant
pilferage, illegal sale, recycling of bags and surreptitious supply of imported
ones. RTI activist Gouri Shankar Jain
said suppliers also produced fake raw jute procurement bills to conceal the
sale of imported bags to the government. “Several manufacturers under-report
the number of imported bags, pushing the unreported lot into the PDS system.
Through over-invoicing, they inflate outgoing remittances and round-trip the
rest of the amount through the hawala channel. It is nothing but black money,”
he said.
Many
manufacturers, particularly those based in Bihar, have also set up mills in
Nepal, it is suspected. Mills in Nepal procure raw jute from India, manufacture
bags and sell them to clients in India.Over the past few years, Ministry
sources said the jute mafia has used individuals to import bags from Nepal
without detection. After the fraud was
detected, the Jute Commissioner’s Office cancelled over 300 such registrations
last month and set new terms and conditions for new registrations. Now,
applicants are required to file monthly returns on imports and sales. The
subsequent buyers also have to furnish the necessary details.Raw jute traders
and mill workers in different parts of the country have been alleging that
several manufacturers, who draw subsidies from the government and get easy
loans, have not been clearing their dues running into hundreds of crores. Last
year, workers at a Kanpur mill got a police case registered against the owners,
alleging that while the latter had shut the mill, they were still supplying
jute to government agencies.
Sad
state of affairs indeed !!
Getting
back to history, the two Nation theory and partition of Bengal did great damage
to the Nation. In 1947, there were riots
in Bengal after partition following birth of Nation. Jute was the largest industry in Bengal at
the time of partition. Radcliffe's line left every single jute mill in West
Bengal but four fifth of the jute producing land in East Bengal. The best
quality fiber yielding breeds of jute were cultivated mostly in East Bengal.
However West Bengal rapidly increased jute production and by mid-to-late 1950s
became largely self-sufficient in jute. West Bengal's mills became less
dependent on East Bengal for raw material.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
13th Oct 2015.
