Union Minister of State for Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar trained his guns on Rahul Gandhi over his recent criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for frequent foreign tours and said that unlike Gandhi, the Prime Minister tell the people of the country before visiting abroad. “Modiji jahan jate hain desh ko batake jate hain aur desh ke liye jate hain. Rahul Gandhi bina bataye jate hain (Wherever Modiji goes, he goes for the country and after giving proper information to the people of the country. However, Rahul Gandhi never tells anyone where he goes,” said Gangwar while interacting with media here in Guwahati on Tuesday.
Gangwar also slammed the Congress vice-president for his comments of the food park in UP and said there is nothing there in the name of food park. “I belong to UP and I have gone there and seen that there is nothing,” he said. The Union Minister was in Guwahati on Tuesday to lay the foundation stone of a Garment and Apparel making centre.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given special attention to the Ministry of Textiles, with special focus on States in the North Eastern Region. The Apparel and Garment Making Centres are being opened in every State in the region, as part of the landmark initiative announced by Modi in Nagaland, on December 1, 2014,” he said while adding that the Central Government is looking forward to work closely with the State Governments for overall development.
“The work have already been started in Nagaland for Garment and Apparel making Centre. We are also working on natural fibres available in different parts of the northeastern region to use as textiles,” he said. Under this scheme each State will have one centre with three units, each having 100 machines. For local entrepreneurs with requisite background, required facilities to start a unit will be provided in ‘plug and play’ mode. Once such entrepreneurs get established, they can set up their own units, allowing the facility to be provided to new entrepreneurs.
The initiative comes under the North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS) of the Ministry of Textiles. NERTPS is an umbrella scheme for the development of various segments of textiles, i.e. silk, handlooms, handicrafts and apparels & garments. The scheme has a total outlay of Rs1,038.10 crore in the 12th Five Year Plan.
The project will be completed in three months and the total cost of the project would be Rs18 crore, fully funded by Government of India. He said that this project will be helpful in skill upgradation, garment development and marketing. The Secretary added that a scheme, worth Rs427 crore, has been sanctioned to promote geotechnical textiles in the North East, which will be helpful in stabilizing roads, addressing the problem of landslides and preserving water bodies.