The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : A fresh look at woes of textile printing units

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 07, 2004

Other States

Other States - Rajasthan

A fresh look at woes of textile printing units

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, APRIL 6 . The Rajasthan Government is finally looking sympathetically into the threat of permanent closure looming large on the world-famous hand block textile printing units in Sanganer following a judgment of the Rajasthan High Court ordering their relocation to save the town from water and environmental pollution caused by effluents.

A Cabinet sub-committee, headed by the Education Minister, Ghanshyam Tiwari -- while examining various aspects of the judgment and the threat to the industry's survival at a meeting here on Monday -- admitted that the State Government had not presented vital facts before the court in the right perspective, which led to the adverse ruling being passed.

The High Court had appointed a four-member committee, comprising the Chief Secretary and three other senior Government functionaries, to probe into the issues raised by a public interest writ petition and submit its report to the court. The Cabinet sub-committee felt that the report did not state "correct and practical'' facts about the block printing industry.

Mr. Tiwari said various departments of the State Government had neither studied all the aspects relating to shifting of units nor brought these facts on record. "The Government only considered the financial aspect of relocation of the industry and ignored the issues such as loss of employment and establishment of an effluent treatment plant,'' he said.

The judgment was delivered in March last year during the Congress regime. The Cabinet sub-committee pointed out that the then Government should have considered the industry's problems in a wider perspective and instructed the committee to inform the court of the facts about revenue and employment generation and settlement of the families engaged in the craft in Sanganer for many generations.

Mr. Tiwari said the Government would examine the legality of applying environmental laws to the block printing units retrospectively as they had been established several decades ago and find out the number of authorised and unathorised units. The Cabinet sub-committee also considered the scope for establishing new treatment plants in Sanganer to reduce pollution.

The other members of the Cabinet sub-committee are the Industries Minister, Narpat Singh Rajvi, and the Irrigation Minister, Sanwarlal Jat. A unanimous decision was also taken to authorise the Industries Department to act as the nodal agency for bringing all relevant facts on record so as to help solve the issue as soon as possible.

According to the Printers' Cooperative Society, the exports by the industry are of the order of Rs. 500 crores and it was providing livelihood to about one lakh people. About 250 Chhipa families in the town have been practising the hand block printing craft for the past three generations. During the last three decades, some Muslim Chhipa families have also migrated from Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh to settle in Sanganer.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News Update

Stories in this Section

Advani Yatra skipping toll tax: Congress

A fresh look at woes of textile printing units