Santosh Kumar Gangwar unveils foundation stone of Patsan Bhavan by National Jute Board

The launch of the Scheme of Jute CFCs along with the holding of the Workshop for Women Self Help Groups is aimed at promotion of Jute Diversified Products (JDPs). 

Under phase I of this Scheme, five Common Facility Centres (CFCs) have been sanctioned, which include 3 CFCs for West Bengal and 1 each for Assam and Bihar – these are Fulia, Ranaghat and Nadia, 2. Deganga, North 24 Parganas; 3) Mogra, Hooghly – all in West Bengal, Assam (Barpeta) and Bihar (Katihar).

The CFCs will support the JDP clusters operated by Women Self Help Groups at block level formed under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) by providing them support on forward and backward linkages – such as design, training, raw material and common facility infrastructure. 

In further pursuance of this initiative, the Ministry of Textiles, through National Jute Board (NJB) has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Institute of Design (NID) for facilitating the entrepreneurs and WSHGs with access to market worthy designs of Jute Diversified Products for domestic as well as export markets.  Under the Jute CFC Scheme, the Women Self Help Group members shall receive assistance for raw material, training and support for marketing.

The proposed building ‘Patsan Bhavan’ will house the four government institutions namely the Headquarter Offices  of -- the Jute Commissioner, the National Jute Manufactures Corporation (NJMC), the Jute Corporation of India (JCI) and the National Jute Board (NJB). The building shall be constructed in New Town, Kolkata.

The National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd. (NBCC) a ‘Navratna’ Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Urban Development, has been given the mandate to construct the ‘Patsan Bhavan’ as a green building at a cost of Rs. 70 crores.

The launch of the Jute CFC Scheme and the unveiling of the foundation stone for the ‘Patsan Bhavan’ was done in the presence of Chairman of the National Jute Board Sri Sanjay Kumar Panda, members of the National Jute Board, other distinguished dignitaries and WSHG members for whose sake the Jute CFC scheme is designed.

On this occasion, “Sonar Beni” a book on Women Self-Help Groups and a book on ‘success Stories in Jute was released. This was followed by the inauguration of a jute exhibition and workshop. All the events were held at Rabindra Tirtha, Rajarhat, Kolkata.

According to Santosh Kumar Gangwar, “Jute is the backbone of the economy of eastern India as it directly provides livelihood to 40 lakhs jute families, 3.70 lakh industrial workers and 2.00 lakh people working in the decentralized jute sector. I’m confident that the jute diversification activities initiated by the National Jute Board (NJB) for the empowerment of women through the Common Facility Centers will prove to be a major milestone for the jute sector.”

Reiterating the vision of the Ministry of Textiles Government of India, Union Textiles Secretary and Chairman National Jute Board Sanjay Kumar Panda envisages “to create a modern, vibrant, integrated and world-class textiles sector including handlooms and handicrafts to produce cost efficient and high quality textiles, apparels and handicrafts for domestic and export sectors”.

“Jute is a home-grown product and pride of West Bengal. At Patsan Bhavan, our collective effort will be to return jute to its rightful place as a glory of the state. We will implement reforms and policy measures to put jute production back on the map,” said the Jute Commissioner Subrata Gupta, IAS.