Aiming to create employment opportunities, government to set up bamboo clusters in J&K: Jitendra Singh

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, Oct 9

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday said the government had been working on a plan to create direct employment opportunities for about 25,000 people in Jammu & Kashmir by rolling out a scheme for setting up bamboo clusters across the country, which will also be implemented in the newly carved out Union Territory.

The Minister said three bamboo clusters would be developed in Jammu, Katra and Samba for making bamboo basketry, incense sticks and bamboo charcoal, which will provide direct employment opportunities to about 25,000 people. An MoU in this regard is at the final stage, he said.

Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) said soon a team of the ministry officials would visit Jammu and explore a field training programme for bamboo farming in the region.

He said the experience of northeastern states would help implement such a scheme in Jammu and Kashmir and it would strengthen the economic conditions of the artisans and also assist in commercial exploitation of bamboo grown in this region.

Jitendra Singh said a workshop-cum-exhibition was organised in January last year in collaboration with the Jammu and Kashmir Administration for the promotion of bamboo.

Officials said, the Minister, while presiding over a high-level meeting said, DoNER plans to set up bamboo clusters across India, beginning from Jammu and Kashmir.

Singh said around 35 per cent areas in the northeastern states were under the bamboo cultivation and the potential of the grass in the region was not fully utilised till restrictions on its movement were lifted by the Modi government by amending the century-old Indian Forest Act last year.

He said the sensitivity with which the Modi government views the importance for the promotion of bamboo was evident from the fact that it had amended the Indian Forest Act by taking home grown bamboo out of the purview of the Forest Act, in order to enhance livelihood opportunities.