Govt will form mobile courts in dists

The government will form mobile courts at all the districts to ensure compulsory use of jute bags by traders for packaging products.

The government launched a mobile court drive last month in the capital to enforce the mandatory jute packaging law but it failed to yield a good result due to shortage of logistic support.  

To expand the monitoring drive the Department of Jute (DoJ) under the ministry of textiles and jute (MoTJ) sent letters to all the deputy commissioners (DCs) asking them to form the mobile courts.

"We've asked the DCs to form mobile courts to help implement the Mandatory Jute Packaging Act, 2010," an MoTJ official told the FE.

He said the mobile courts at the district level will be first of their kind to implement the act. Due to the absence of mobile courts most of the millers show reluctance to use the jute bags for storage of rice and paddy, sugar and other goods. Most of the traders still use synthetic bags that are harmful for environment.   

"We've asked authorities of BJMC (Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation) to produce jute bags against the demand. The bags could be collected from the BJMC mill gates and sales centres. The DoJ has set up a control room at its Motijheel office," the official said.  

The BJMC mills will supply the 'sacking' (cutbinola) and 'hessian' bags to the millers and traders for packaging their products.

"We are capable of supplying sufficient quantity of sacking and hessian bags to the millers," Deputy General Manager (DGM) of BJMC Shameem Reza Khan told the FE.

He said the millers could purchase per piece of sacking bag (cutbinola quality) weighing 600 gram and measuring 37 inches in length and 22.5 inches in width at a price of Tk 44  while hessian bag weighing 345 gram and measuring  37 inches in length and 22.5 inches in width at Tk 32.

He said the mills of BJMC are capable of producing most of the required bags.

The Mandatory Jute Packaging Act, 2010 came into effect in January 2014. Under the act it is compulsory to use jute sacks for packaging paddy, rice, wheat, maize and sugar weighing 20 kg or above.

Meanwhile, to implement the act the MoTJ issued a circular Wednesday asking the mills of BJMC to supply the bags as per the requirement of the millers.       

The MoTJ asked all the traders to use jute bags for packaging their products. If any trader fails to use jute bags, then the government will take legal steps against the violator of the act, the official of the ministry said.  

BJMC director (marketing) Babul Chandra Roy told the FE

that they are constantly working to increase sale of jute goods, such as jute sacking (cutbinola) and hessian to different public-sector organisations.  

He said BJMC sells jute sacks and hessian to Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), the ministry of food (MoF) and other organisations.

"We sold jute goods worth Tk 3.0 billion in the internal market during the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14. The amount is 30 per cent of our total sale. We are trying to increase internal sale to nearly 50 per cent within the next few years," the BJMC official added.