‘Rajasthan is the third largest salt producing state’: Sitharaman

New Delhi, Aug. 7 : Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman has said that Rajasthan is the third largest salt producing state in the country after Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

“Out of the total of 268.87 lakh ton of salt produced in the country in 2014-15, the total salt produced in Rajasthan is 21.58 lakh ton,” she added.

Sitharaman said the country has at present around 6.16 lakh acres of salt producing land.

“The Central Government owns about 60,586 acres of salt pan lands out of which 50,488 acres of land are under salt production in various salt producing States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil Nadu,” she added in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

Sitharaman further currently, the government does not have any proposal under consideration to promote the salt production in saline areas of Thar region, including Pachpadra. (ANI)