Textiles Ministry giving special focus to NE states

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Aug. 8 (EMN): The Ministry of Textiles stated that in the raw material support towards the North East Region’s Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS), the Government of India (GOI) has given special emphasis for consolidation and expansion of sericulture in all the north eastern states with critical interventions from host plantation development to finished products with value addition at every stage of production chain.

 This was stated in the ministry’s annual report of 2019-20.

 “As a part of this, under NERTPS-an umbrella scheme of Ministry of Textiles, the GOI has approved 38 sericulture projects for implementing in all north eastern states in the identified potential districts under broad categories viz., Integrated Sericulture Development Project (ISDP), Intensive Bivoltine Sericulture Development Project (IBSDP), eri spun silk mills and Aspirational Districts with a total cost of these projects at INR 1,107.90 crore, of which GoI share was INR 956.01 crore”, the report maintained.

“The projects are proposed to bring around 38,170 acres of plantation under mulberry,eri, muga and oak tasar sectors and are expected to contribute additional production of 2,650 MT raw silk during the project period”.

Integrated Sericulture Development Project (ISDP)

20 projects have been approved with a total cost of INR 673.41 crore (GoI share of INR 566.53 crore) for implementation in Assam including BTC, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Out of the total cost of INR 673.41 crore, INR 53.7 Cr was for Nagaland out of which INR 43.47 Cr. was released as per the report.

The projects will support 29,910 acres plantation of mulberry, eri and muga. This includes setting up of silk printing and processing units for Tripura, soil to silk for BTC (Assam) and post cocoon technology (PCT) for Nagaland, the report stated.

While 18 projects are meant for implementation by the State Sericulture departments, one project — creation of seed infrastructure — is implemented by Central Silk Board to produce and ensure uninterrupted supply of quality seed to NE states. According to the report, till December-2019, the Ministry has released INR 448.78 crore for the above projects, against which the expenditure reported was INR 384.69 crore (86%).

To create infrastructure facilities for production of the quality seed in mulberry, eri and muga sectors in the northeast, a project was approved at a total cost of INR 37.71 crore (100% Central assistance). This scheme envisages construction of six seed infrastructure units [(one mulberry seed unit at Jorhat (Assam), four muga seed units at Silchar (Assam), Mokokchung (Nagaland), Kokrajhar (BTC-Assam), Tura (Meghalaya) and one eri seed unit at Topatoli (Assam)] with a production capacity of 30 lakh mulberry dfls and 21.51 lakh muga and eri dfls. The Ministry has so far released INR 35.82 crore for this project, against which the expenditure reported is INR 32.54 crore (91%).

Development of Sericulture in aspirational districts

Govt. of India initiated development of silk industry in the aspirational districts in one/two blocks per district covering mulberry, eri, muga or oak tasar as per the potentiality of the district with the involvement of state governments.

Presently, five sericulture projects have been approved in the states of Assam, BTC, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland at a total cost of INR 79.60 crore with GoI share of INR 73.47 crore.

The projects cover 3,360 acres of plantation benefitting around 4,185 beneficiaries. As of December, 2019, Ministry has released INR 32.53 crore under the above said project against which the expenditure reported is INR 6.25 crore (19%).

The total project cost for Nagaland was INR 14.65 crore. While the GOI share is INR 13.49 crore, the GOI has released INR 4.50 crore till Dec. 2019 as per the report.