The Centre is planning to set up bamboo clusters across the country and first such initiative will be taken in Jammu and Kashmir, thereby providing direct employment opportunities to about 25,000 people in the union territory, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday.
Singh, Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said around 35 per cent areas in the northeastern states are under the bamboo cultivation and the potential of the grass in the region was not fully utilised till restrictions on its movement were lifted by the Modi government by amending the century-old Indian Forest Act last year.
The DoNER ministry plans to set up bamboo clusters across India, beginnwing from Jammu and Kashmir, he said presiding over a high-level meeting here.