A meeting of the Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament attached to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers was held here yesterday. The topic for discussions was “Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs)” and Plastic Parks. In the meeting, the Union Minister of Chemicals& Fertilizers, Ananth Kumar said that today’s challenge in the sector is value addition and for that value addition, milking the crude for further proliferation of the downstream industries is needed. The target of Modi Government is to achieve an investment of Rs.7,62,000 crores and generate employment for 34 lakh people in PCPIRs in time bound manner. Already there has been an investment Rs1,06,000 crores which has generated employment for 2.23 lakh people in various PCPIRs.

The Minister informed the Committee Members about Government’s initiatives to increase the number of plastic parks from 4 to 10 to catch up with the increasing demand. He also mentioned that the number of Central Institutes for Plastic Engineering and Technology (CIPET) will be increased from 23 to 100, to create additional capacity for skill development in the area.

Kumar said that the Government is emphasizing on reducing the consumption of non-biodegradable plastics, and re-using and re-cycling of other graded polymers. He said that the Government has instituted awards for Green Technology in plastic processing, to promote environment-friendly efforts in the industry.  He responded to various queries and concerns raised by the Members of Parliament who took part in the meeting.