UP: Future of Amroha’s Famous Cotton Waste Industry Hangs by a Thread

Lucknow: The annual budget presented by Uttar Pradesh finance minister Suresh Khanna at the state Assembly on February 22 has disappointed the cotton waste sector of Amroha. People associated with the industry said they were expecting some incentives but the budget did not meet their expectations.

Removal of power subsidy for the cotton waste industry for the past few years, rising costs and falling demand have been troubling manufacturers in Amroha, a minority concentrated district in Western Uttar Pradesh.

The abolition of government subsidies on electricity bills and increase in unit rates of commercial electricity connections is the key reason for the distress in the cotton-waste business. Besides, rising raw material costs has dented the business, say the manufacturers.

The annual turnover of the Amroha cotton waste industry was around Rs 300 crore seven-eight years ago, which is now only Rs 20-30 crore. 

"Our industry was looking forward to some concrete plans for revival from this budget. Promises have been made time and again in past budgets about enhancing the outlay for cotton-waste but our trade has been ignored once again. Cotton waste trade suffered tremendously due to the Covid-19 pandemic and it was expected that the state government would at least work toward its uplift," Sandeep Aggarwal, a cotton waste trader in Amroha, told NewsClick. 

“In his budget speech, the state finance minister set out by saying that "Amritkal" was positive for the growth of the state, but we feel the government should have taken steps to save the cotton-waste industry which already passing through "Vishamkal", he added.

Arif, a manufacturer, said the addition of cotton waste industry as part of the state government's 'One District-One Product Programme', which aims to encourage indigenous and specialised products and crafts in UP, had not resulted in providing any relief during the pandemic.

“If the government recognises the importance of the industry, why weren’t we given any compensation or relief when we were hit by the lockdown?” he said.

Some manufacturers said  during the tenure of Mahboob Ali, former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from Amroha and cabinet minister, they had received Rs 2 crore as subsidy from 2015 to 2017, but ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state, the Yogi Adityanath government had allocated only Rs 1 crore in the budget for 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. In the past two years, the government has not made any allocation for the industry.  

"We had expectations from this year’s budget but this time,, too we were disappointed. It seems the government is least concerned about us. If the situation remains the same, in three-four years, the industry will completely close down," said Sandeep, who was a manufacturer a decade ago but due to government “negligence”, left the trade. 

SOFT LANDING

Cotton waste factories have dwindled in number from about 450 pre-Covid-19 to about100 today. Production is now at 200 tonnes of yarn a day, down 25% from 2008.

With thousands employed directly, the cotton-waste industry was the financial backbone of Amroha town once upon a time. Exports to some Western countries managed to put this small UP town on the world map. However, due to the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government’s “apathy”, the future of this small-scale business now hangs by a thread.  

“There was a time when Amroha’s roads used to be blocked by lines of trucks, carrying tonnes of clothes to the factories,” Rizwan Pasha of Amroha Textile Chindi Association told NewsClick, adding that the industry which employed more than 40,000-50,000 workers is now left with only around 5,000 workers.

Pasha said that rising raw good costs and removal of power subsidy and income tax exemptions have eaten about Rs 500 crore of the Rs 2,500 crore textile industry that had made this town of “artistry and squalor” famous in the world.

Citing several reasons for the falling demand, Naeem Ahmad, a city- based manufacturer, said they were shifting from textiles to other industries. He also complained that no incentive had been given to the cotton-waste trade that already facing tough times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Manufacturers said the falling demand for cotton quilts could also be traced all the way to China, where a new type of artificial fleece was being used to make soft blankets from virgin polyester yarn and acrylic/synthetic blankets. 

The blankets made from shoddy cotton yarn are coarse and usually brown or grey. In addition to disaster relief, these are used by the Indian Railways and in government hospitals. The Chinese blankets are light, soft and come in a variety of colours and are cheaper.

The manufacturers believe that another reason for the downfall of the industry was that earlier the rate of electricity was low in Uttar Pradesh and raw material was also cheaper. The machines were installed in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, which used to export the goods.

"The period 1995-2010 was the peak for our industry. About 50,000 persons, mostly labour, were employed in Amroha ‘s factories during that period. Their number has now dwindled. The workers are now leading a difficult life and the situation will not change until the handloom sector is revamped. When the downfall began, the previous Akhilesh Yadav government gave subsidies and the business was back on track, but ever since the Yogi government came to power, no subsidy has been given," Arif, a leading manufacturer, told NewsClick. 

He said "the Yogi government gave Rs 1 crore for two years (2018-20) even though that fund was allocated by the then Samajwadi Party. Since they (SP) did not come back to power, it was released by the current government," Arif alleged.