Bhubaneswar, Sep 25 (UNI) Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today sought personal intervention of Union Minister of Commerce and industry Piyush Goyal on the shifting of regional office of Director General of Foreign Trade from Cuttack. Pradhan in a letter to Mr Goel urged him to continue the regional office of the DGFT at Cuttack keeping in mind the development needs of Odisha as an export hub and also the benefit of the exporters and producers of the state.
The Union Minister said he came to know that the DGFT has decided to close the regional office at Cuttack and merged it with the DGFT eastern zone office at Kolkata. Pradhan said Odisha being a coastal state with port like Paradip handling major volume of cargo in the country and a gateway of sea food export to Japan, it was pertinent that the regional office of the DGFT should continue .
The closure of the regional office at Cuttack, he said would jeopardize the ease of doing business for exporters of Odisha who will now travel to Kolkata for availing the facilities like clearances and processings. Odisha, Mr.Pradhan said is a major exporter of minerals, handlooms, handicrafts, tribal products, sea food, process food and agricultural products and urged Mr.Goyal to personally intervene in the continuance of the regional office of the DGFT in Cuttack.
