Lucknow: Rajnath pledges to revive defunct ordnance unit

LUCKNOW: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday assured the UP government that he would ask the central government to revive the defunct ordnance factory in Shahjahanpur — the biggest cloth factory of the defence ministry.
Singh gave the assurance to UP urban development and parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna in Delhi.
Speaking to TOI, Khanna said the factory has been staring at closure in the wake of outsourcing of clothing material to the open market.This had led to sharp decline in the production of Army uniform and other clothing accessories in the factory, the minister said.
The factory gives employment to over 50,000 persons of Shahjahanpur region, said Khanna, an eight-time MLA from Shahjahanpur.
Rajnath told Khanna that he was aware that the factory’s closure could lead to large scale unemployment in the terai belt.
Khanna also handed over a memorandum to Rajnath with details of the factory — which was set up during the British period — and remained the largest supplier of clothes in the defence establishment until its decline.