Water crisis hits Ballari’s jeans industry as over 100 units shut temporarily, hundreds left jobless
Ballari: A severe water shortage in Karnataka's Ballari is crippling the region’s jeans industry, leading to the temporary closure of over 100 jeans units and leaving hundreds of workers unemployed. The crisis, which has been ongoing for over a month, has reportedly left the industry in turmoil as many units that are still running are using tanker water, which is expensive.
Ballari, often referred to as the "Jeans Capital" of India, is home to 732 jeans production units, which rely heavily on water-intensive washing processes. The industry association has requested the administration to provide sufficient water to run the units, as reported by The New Indian Express on Tuesday.
All the 732 jeans factories in Ballari depend on fifteen washing units to finish their products. Although water shortages have been a recurring issue every summer for the past decade, no permanent solution has been found, the report added.
The situation has reached a critical point, with many units halting production due to the skyrocketing cost of water. Industry associations have appealed to the local administration for a more reliable water supply, but their repeated requests have largely been ignored by both officials and political leaders.
An owner of one of the units noted that summer started 15 days early this year which exacerbated the situation. “Instead of waiting and paying more money to wash jeans products, some owners have shut their units for four to five months. This has left a large number of people unemployed,” TNIE quoted the owner as saying.
Meanwhile, owners of the jeans washing units are pinning their hopes on the apparel park planned by the Karnataka state government, which is expected to provide a dedicated water pipeline from the Tungabhadra Dam to address the ongoing water shortage.
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BJP grew when I was Bengal chief, going down after touts joined: Dilip amid protest over Digha visit
Digha/ Kolaghat (WB), May 1 (PTI): Faced with protests from a section of BJP workers for visiting the Jagannath temple in Digha, senior leader Dilip Ghosh on Thursday said it was during his tenure as the state president that the party gained in strength in West Bengal and has been on a downward slide ever since "touts" have joined it.
Ghosh, along with his newly-married wife Rinku Majumdar, visited the temple, built by the TMC government, on Wednesday and met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, triggering speculations that he may jump ship ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
Even as he rejected the speculations, a section of BJP workers protested against him when he made a brief stopover at Kolaghat while returning to Kolkata from Digha.
Engaged in a war of words with the protestors, Ghosh said, "The BJP grew to its present stature in West Bengal when I was the state president. Over 250 BJP workers gave their lives to take the party to its present position. People trusted us, but that trust is steadily going down. Ever since touts have joined the party, it is on the downside."
"If you want to fight your enemies, then fight the good fight, don't do drama. I am not here to switch parties, but to change the politics of the state," he told the protesting party supporters.
Ghosh, who became the state BJP president in 2015, was removed from the post after the 2021 assembly elections.
Asked about the decision to visit the temple, he told reporters at the Digha sea beach in the morning, "Our party did not ask us to skip the invitation. I have been invited, and that is the reason I have come here. I have got the guts to do so."
"Why do lakhs of people go to the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the Kashi Viswanath temple in Varanasi? Even Mamata Banerjee had asked her party leaders not to go to Kumbh Mela, but there were many who went. Have they committed any crime? Do you know who built the Kalighat and Dakshineswar temples? It is not important who built the temple, people go because god is worshipped there," he added.
Asked about the speculations of joining the TMC, Ghosh shot back, "Why should I?"
"I am not having a bad time. I have not changed in the last 10 years, I have not changed my party like many others who switch sides whenever there is an election. Dilip Ghosh does not need to change sides," he said.
Ghosh's visit to the temple and subsequent meeting with Banerjee, a part of which was live-streamed on the CM's Facebook page, raised several eyebrows, with BJP leaders not hiding their anguish.
Sharing a photo of the meeting between Ghosh and Banerjee, senior BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta said in a post on X, "The outrage among grassroots BJP Bengal workers at this apparent betrayal by a former state president is too deafening for the national leadership to ignore."
On the criticisms, the former Kharagpur MP, who lost the last Lok Sabha elections against TMC's Kirti Azad in the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, said, "People keep on talking about Dilip Ghosh. Even if they talk negatively, that works as an advertisement for me."
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said the party did not endorse his visit.
"It's Dilip Ghosh's personal choice. But the party doesn't endorse the visit. Many of our MLAs were invited, but nobody visited due to the atrocities against Hindus in various places of the state," he said.
Asked about the visit, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said, "I don't want to talk about him."
