A Central Task Force will be constituted in two or three weeks to draft a National Fertilizer Policy for the first time, said Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers Ananth Kumar.
When asked about the deadline, he said the immediate objective was to constitute the team that will look into various aspects of the proposed fertilizer policy that would include bio-fertilizer and micro-nutrients too and come up with a policy in a few months, he told presspersons.
He was speaking to presspersons after inaugurating the 5 edition of a 4-day IPLEX 14-International Plastics Exposition, hosted by the Andhra Pradesh Plastics Manufacturers Association (APPMA), the Industries & Commerce Department, Government of Telangana, and the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers, Government of India, here on Friday evening.
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The Union Minister assured office-bearers of PMAs from the southern States that the polymers and plastics sector would surely get its due and that he was calling for a round table conference at Mumbai in the third week of August to discuss its problems. He pledged Centre’s support to an industry that was expected to touch 20 million tonnes (MT) of plastic usage by the year 2022, up from the current 11.5 MT.
Recalling that a bare 3 to 4 p.c. of usage was going waste, the plastic manufacturers should focus attention on recycling it, he said, adding that they could possibly look at the task like ‘plastic social responsibility’.
Mr. Ananth Kumar said that very soon, financial sanction for setting up a new Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET) campus over a 20-acre spread in Rudraram of Medak district at a cost of Rs. 50 crore would be accorded. It would take students intake up from the current 2,500 to about 5,000 in about two years, he said, to applause.
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To a request from Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, Jayesh Ranjan, about cooperation to set up a Chemicals City proposed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on the lines of Petroleum, Chemicals & Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR), the Minister said he would take it up with the Centre. “I know Telangana does not have a sea port for us to get a PCPIR. I will persuade the Planning Commission to sanction it,” he said, pledging the Centre’s support to Telangana.
Earlier, IPLEX-14 Convenor V. Anil Reddy welcomed the gathering while APPMA president Venugopal Jasti proposed a vote of thanks. Others who spoke included Special Secretary-Industries Pradeep Chandra (Telangana) and Director-General of CIPET, S.K. Nayak.