Invent disease tolerant jute: Prime minister

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged scientists to invent high yielding variety of jute tolerant to diseases and adverse climate, and also such varieties that can be cultivated round the year.
“I hope that our scientists, like the jute genome sequencing, will be able to invent drought, saline and cold tolerant variety of jute,” she said, assuring scientists of all-out support to this end.
Hasina was addressing at the inaugural session of a two-day international seminar on "Jute-2012", organised by the Department of Jute at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.
Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui and Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury spoke at the session, chaired by Senior Secretary of the ministry Ashraful Moqbul.
The prime minister urged workers of different jute mills to give special attention to run the mills properly and make those profitable.
She alleged that the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government had closed down many jute mills, including Adamjee Jute Mills in 2002.
But her government has re-opened Khalishpur Jute Mills in Khulna renamed as Peoples Jute Mills while Qaumi Jute Mills of Sirajganj renamed as National Jute Mills, which were earlier shut down by the BNP-Jamaat government, she said.
Besides, three more jute mills have been conducting trial production and these will be inaugurated soon, she added.
Following the measures taken by the government, Hasina said the nationalised jute mills, for the first time in 30 years since 1982, witnessed a net profit of Tk 20 crore in 2010-11 fiscal.
She expressed the hope that people of all strata life, including scientists and researchers, would come forward to help the government turn Bangladesh into a middle income country by 2021.