The BJP-led union government is continuing its discrimination against Telangana. Maintaining its indifferent attitude towards one of the best-performing states in the country, Narendra Modi-led centre has taken another detrimental decision.
After scrapping the All India Handloom Board, the centre has now decided to shut the regional office of the National Jute Board in Hyderabad and merge it with the head office in Kolkata. While the promise to set up a Turmeric Board in Nizamabad remains unfulfilled, closing the jute board is a shocker to the people of Telangana.
The regional Jute Board office was established in 1994 to support and promote jute cultivation and jute products. Jute is cultivated on 25,000 acres in the state and plans are afoot to increase it to 50,000 acres to meet the demand for jute/gunny bags.
As there is a significant increase in paddy production in Telangana, the farmers are depending on states like West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh for gunny bags. To address this growing demand, the state government is putting efforts to increase the number of jute mills in the state.
At this juncture, the closing of the Jute Board office in Telangana is nothing but a deliberate attempt to create hurdles in the smooth functioning of the state government.