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Mr P. Chidambaram

Our Bureau

Coimbatore, April 19 The Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Saturday assured the textile sector that the Union Government will take “right steps at the right time” to resolve the textile industry crisis as the UPA Government is fully aware that textile is the next most important sector after agriculture.

“The Union Government will pay special attention to textile this year to solve the problems facing the sector by holding consultation with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh,” Mr Chidambaram said.

Inaugurating the Union Government-sponsored ‘Palladam Hi-tech Weaving Park’ being put up under the scheme of integrated textile park (SITP) at Palladam, about 35 km from here, Mr Chidambaram said his Government gave priority to agriculture this time considering the fact that a big country like India could not rely entirely on import of foodgrains and its requirements were to be met internally.

Similarly, the Centre was also aware that textile sector held the second-most important position in the economy which needs to be nurtured and his Government would continue to pay attention on this sector.

Referring to the textile industry’s difficulties, especially the woes of exporters arising out of the rising rupee, Mr Chidambaram said in a developing economy like ours, the shifting currency values, their falls or rises, cannot be avoided. Such crisis need not be taken as a permanent setback and could be surmounted through practical solutions and timely policy changes.

The Finance Minister taking a pot shot at those criticising his Government allocation for rural employment guarantee programme and farmers loan waivers as unrealistic, however, maintained that in the event of the economic growth touching the 10 per cent, allocating such outlays or even more would be possible.

Describing the Palladam hi-tech weaving park as a novel attempt , Mr Chidambaram said the weaving park with an infrastructure spend of Rs 55.42 crore, of which the Government subsidy alone stood at Rs 22.17 crore, and weavers investment of Rs 160 had potential to provide 5,000 jobs to rural people. Of the 30 such textile parks sanctioned by the Centre across the country, six parks are to be established in Tamil Nadu. Two parks — Palladam weaving park and the Kumarapalayam Hi-tech weaving park in Kumarapalayam — were inaugurated today. The establishment of four more parks – in Karur, Perundurai, Madurai and Cuddalore – are to follow suit, Mr Chidambaram added.

Earlier speaking at the park inauguration, the Union Minister of Textiles, Mr Sankersinh Vaghela, urged the textile entrepreneurs not to let issues such as the strong rupee to cloud their business perception and such setbacks were temporary. He called upon them to go for increased product mix and cost cutting to overcome challenges as the booming retailing and growth potential of domestic textile markets gave new business opportunities. He said the private-public participation provided through the scheme of integrated textile parks has elicited greater response.

The Union Minister of State for Textile, Mr E.V.K.S. Elangovan, speaking at the function said that Centre continued to support the textile sector and as part of this, it has allocated funds to start six mega textile clusters for handloom and powerloom, including the one to be set up at Erode for which Rs 70 crore would be earmarked.

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