S. Sundaresan. — Photo: N. Rajesh.

Tuticorin : The Centre will establish a model salt farm in the State during the current fiscal, at an estimated outlay of Rs.25 lakh, to promote production of quality salt.

According to S. Sundaresan, Salt Commissioner, Government of India, the proposed farm would come up at Marakanam with facilities to train saltpan workers and manufacturers in state-of-art salt manufacturing techniques for enhancing production.

"We expect to receive trainees not only from India but also from Bangladesh and East African nations, which have already shown great interest in getting trained in India, using the expertise here."

He said though Tamil Nadu accounted for 15 per cent of the total salt production in the country per annum, the State still was `importing' three lakh tonnes of salt meant for `industrial purposes' from Gujarat, owing to shortfall in production of that variety.

"Thus, the farm will be of immense help to manufacturers in this part of the country for imbibing technologies to overcome such `region-specific' shortfalls and meeting salt requirements of the industries."

Similar farms were expected to be established in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa too shortly, he said.

Housing scheme

Mr. Sundaresan said the Centre would construct a total of 362 houses for salt labourers working in Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram, Thanjavur and Villupuram districts, before March 31, 2007."Each house will be built at a cost of Rs.50,000 on land provided free-of-cost by the State Government."

The Commissioner said that of the total construction cost, 90 per cent would be borne by the Centre and the remaining by the State Government or beneficiaries. He said since salt was a labour intensive industry, educational aid amounting to Rs.1,00,500 was disbursed to children of salt labourers during the last fiscal alone.

The Commissioner said the Salt Department was now in the process of enumerating salt workers in the country, which would help the Centre in implementing various welfare schemes in a better manner.

"Enumeration work will be completed before March 31, 2008," he said.

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