[Smriti Irani interacting with media persons, after taking charge as Union Textiles Minister in New Delhi on July 06, 2016.]
Malegaon: Facing losses since last more than two years textile manufacturers are expecting Union Minister Smriti Irani will come out with some concrete and far reaching plan as she prepares to announce a package to bring the ailing industry back to track.
According to Regional Textile Office and Powerloom Service Centre in Malegaon, Textil Minister Smriti Irani will be arriving in Bhiwandi Saturday morning. Accompanied by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis she will announce what is billed as "New Textile Policy" at around 10:00 am.
Perhaps to send a message that latest technology is key she will use video link to connect and interact with textile representatives from all across India.
In Malegaon, the Powerloom Service Centre (PSC) has made arrangement at Aishwariya Mangal Kariyalaya where local MP Subhash Bhamre and MLA Asif Shaikh Rasheed will also interact with Smriti Irani along with representative of local powerloom industry.
Textile manufacturers had in the past held a series of meetings with Smriti Irani to apprise her of their problems. Consequently she also visited Bhiwandi textile cluster and met powerloom owners and weavers to know their grievances.
However nothing could be done so far because of one reason or the other and the textile clusters lost hope that this government will do anything for them.
Their hope however got revived in February when Smriti Irani said in Parliamentthat she would come out with a textile package once the elections in five states are over.
As Smriti Irani finally prepares to announce the "promised package" textile manufacturers are eagerly waiting to know if the "killing anti-dumping" is abolished or not.
Anti-dumping duty imposed on synthetic yarn has created chaos besides cotton shortage, labour problems and lack of coordination to properly implement the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS).
The Spinning Mills sector is also keeping its hope on the April 01 "video meet" to see if Smriti Irani has addressed its problem. Currently most of the spinning mills in Maharashtra are either closed or are observing duty cut to avoid losses.