Calcutta, May 9: The standing advisory committee for jute packaging is learnt to have recommended the dilution of norms for foodgrain and sugar. For the current jute year (July 2007-June 2008), it wants 75 per cent of foodgrain and 70 per cent of sugar to be packed in jute bags against 100 per cent for both the commodities now.

The committee, under the Union textile ministry, held a meeting last week where representatives of some ministries, jute firms, petrochemical industry and the Bengal government were present to plead their cases. Last year, too, the committee had recommended a similar dilution. Ultimately, the Union cabinet came to the rescue of the jute industry and maintained the 100-per-cent-jute-packaging norm for foodgrains and sugar.

At the meeting, the representative of Bengal had made strong a plea for the continuation of the 100-per-cent packaging norm, under Jute Packaging Materials Act, 1987, in the interests of jute farmers and workers in jute mills. The significantly stronger synthetic lobby had, however, proposed scrapping the policy introduced two decades ago by the Rajiv Gandhi government to revive the Bengal jute industry.

The jute industry, represented by the Indian Jute Mills Association, had pleaded before the committee for compulsory packing of not only foodgrain and sugar but also oilseeds, pulses, groundnut, tea, coffee and cocoa.