Government makes packaging of foodgrains in jute bags mandatory
   Date :30-Oct-2020

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NEW DELHI ;
 
IN ORDER to help the jute industry, the Government on Thursday decided that 100 per cent food grains and 20 per cent sugar will be mandatorily packaged in jute bags. A decision to extend the norms for mandatory packaging in jute materials was taken by the Union Cabinet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar said, while briefing reporters about the meeting. The decision, he said, will benefit about 4 lakh workers engaged in the jute sector along with thousands of farmers. Jute is primarily grown in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh.
 
Programme for maintaining 736 dams gets nod THE Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a project to ensure maintenance and improvement of 736 dams in 19 States in the next 10 years. Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told reporters at a Cabinet briefing here that phases two and three of the dam rehabilitation and improvement programme will be completed under a 10-year plan at a total cost of Rs 10,211 crore. “The project will be implemented in two phases, each of six-year duration with two years overlapping from April, 2021 to March, 2031,” the Jal Shakti Ministry said in a statement.
 
Providing details, Shekhawat said, the first phase of the programme was launched in 2012. It ended in 2020 under which 223 dams in seven States were included. “The share of external funding is Rs 7,000 crore of the total project cost, and balance Rs 3,211 crore is to be borne by the concerned Implementing Agencies (IAs). The contribution of Central Government is Rs 1,024 crore as loan liability and Rs 285 crore as counterpart funding for central component,” the Jal Shakti Ministry said.