The Hindu Business Line : Ministry assures support for Manipur silk exports

Benefits
The five-year project will be executed in two phases.
Phase-I will also increase production level of mulberry silk and provide employment to 30,720 persons.

Kolkata , Oct. 5

The Union Ministry of Commerce has assured full support for the JBIC-aided Rs 490.59 crore Manipur Sericulture project, especially for marketing of value-added silk products in both domestic and international markets.

The five-year project is being executed in two phases, with the first envisaging an investment of Rs 134.52 crore and set for completion by March 31, 2008. Mulberry silkworm rearing and reeling in Manipur is carried out in a limited way in the traditional villages such as Khurkhul, Leimaram, Phayeng and Thongjao. Eri rearing and spinning is taken up by the people living in the valley, particularly in the Wangoo and Sugunu areas.

The current facility of airfreight subsidy of 90 per cent up to Kolkata airport and 50 per cent up to Delhi and Mumbai for all horticulture product exports from the North Eastern States will also be extended to silk exports from Manipur.

Describing the silk project as the best thing that has happened for the insurgency-hit State, in terms of employment generation and other economic benefits, Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, told newspersons in Imphal recently that production of high quality bi-voltine silk in Manipur would fetch huge economic benefits for the state.

Besides providing self-employment to 30,720 persons, the Phase-I of the sericulture project will also increase production level of mulberry silk from 46 tonnes to 150 tonnes and Eri silk from 160 to 168 tonnes. The Minister said the Government may also fund the setting up of a showroom in Varanasi for value-added silk products from Manipur and help the State set up marketing centre in Bangkok.

Preparations on

Talking to Business Line in Imphal recently, Mr Mangi Singh, State Minister of Commerce & Industry, said till end of August 2006 some 1,365 hectares of land have been brought under Mulberry plantation, with the coverage of 814 FOUs (field operation units), against the target of 1,000 FOUs by 2007-08.

Implementation of the silk project, he clarified, was now based on the Revised Action Plan prepared by the Central Silk Board (CSB) under the Union Ministry of Textiles, in close consultations with the officers of the Sericulture Department, Government of Manipur.

Mr Singh said during 2005-06, the State has been maintaining 28,640 hectares under silkworm food plants against the target of 28,543 ha, providing employment to 35,100 beneficiaries through production of 220 tonnes of silk yarn.

He informed that some 13 schemes, under the 2005-06 Plan, were under active progress with a budgetary provision of Rs 56.33 crore, which also includes a Central share of Rs 46.34 lakh.

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