<i>Golden fibre</i>
Photo: Focus Bangla
My daughter Aishi, a student of class four, was reading a paragraph on jute. "Jute is the golden fibre of Bangladesh", she went on reading for her exams. In our student days we used to read the same sentence and there had been reasons to believe it at that time but is it still true these days? We had Adamjee, the biggest jute mills in the world and many other jute mills. But due to huge losses, we had to close down many mills. During the first term of Begum Khaleda Zia, the then Industries Minister Mr. Zahir Uddin Khan informed us of the government's plan on diversification of jute. We were happy to hear that, especially the use of green jute plants in making pulp for manufacturing paper. But there has been no progress on the matter since then. If loss is the reason behind winding up of jute mills, we cannot raise any objection. But when we hear the news that new jute mills are being set up in India, we are confused.
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