The Hindu Business Line : Purchase scheme for coir sector

The Kerala Government has drawn up a "district purchase" scheme to help small-scale coir and coir products manufacturers who are burdened with unsold stocks.

This followed discussions the Minister in charge of coir development department, Mr G. Sudhakaran, had with the small-scale manufacturers and trade union representatives to find ways to solve the problems facing the coir industry.

The scheme aims at purchasing coir and coir products worth Rs 7 crore initially. An implementation committee comprising officials of the Coir Department and heads of public sector organisations in the coir sector has been formed for the purpose.

IMPLEMENTATION

The Kerala State Coir Corporation will be in charge of implementing the scheme. The regional centres of the Coirfed will procure the coir stocks, while the coir products will be procured by the Coir Corporation.

The Government has also given instructions that the procurement should involve no middlemen. Besides, the scheme will be available only to those manufacturers who are paying statutory wages to the workers.

To ensure that the instructions are strictly complied with, monitoring committees will be formed on coir project/circle basis. The procurement will be made only from those manufacturers who are approved by the monitoring committee.