FE Report
Industries Ministry Adviser Geetiara Safiya Chowdhury Sunday said the government is mulling to constitute a national commission on jute comprising experts from private sector.
"The national commission will recommend to us how to make the jute sector more competitive as the sector is reviving," she added.
She was addressing a press conference at the conference room of the Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) in the city.
The BSEC organised the press conference to brief about the profit by the state owned entity.
The BSEC made Tk 297.3 million in 2006-07 fiscal, which is 48 per cent higher than that of the 2005-06, fiscal.
Besides, the industries under the BSEC has paid around Tk 1.66 billion as duty and tax to the national exchequer.
She also said that the retrenched workers of the closed jute mills would be sent home only after payoff and the government would do that by August next.
"Those who will be retrenched will not be just thrown out of the mills, rather they will be paid their just dues in full, including entitled benefits," she said about the donor-driven structural readjustment scheme euphemistically called golden handshake.
She said she was sympathised with the workers. "But we have taken the decision to close down four jute mills out of 22 simply to make remaining mills viable.
She said the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation is working hard to make detailed accounts on the speedy payment and it will require July and August to pay them.
When she was told that the retrenched workers were to the predicament that in such a bad situation eminent citizens of Khulna are feeding them in gruel kitchen, Geetiara said: "We did not open the gruel kitchen." She said police had intervened when it became a law and order issue.
National commission on jute on the cards
FE Team | Published: July 23, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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