Calcutta, Aug. 6: A Howrah police team and personnel from the jute commissioner's office seized jute bags said to be worth crores of rupees from two warehouses today following a raid to stop them from being stolen before they could be stamped for central procurement.

"The bags were not stamped," a source said after the raid in Ghusuri started around 5pm. "The mills were supposed to mark the bags before they were sent to Punjab and Haryana for packaging. These bags were being siphoned off for other purposes, including sale in the open market," a source said.

Jute bags procured by the Centre have to be marked with information such as the type of jute used, the manufacturing country and the dimensions of the packs. Mills that manufacture the bags on central orders mark them before they are procured by the Union government.

According to sources, the number of unstamped jute bags seized today is yet to be ascertained as the raid was continuing till late in the night. Bags stored in the two warehouses and those that were being taken away in two trucks have been seized.

"It is difficult to estimate the quantity at the moment but the worth of the seized bags could be a few crores of rupees," a senior textile ministry official said, adding the raid followed a tip-off from a jute mill.

The Centre procures jute-packaging material worth Rs 5,000 crore annually from states. The procurement is done according to the Jute Packaging Materials (compulsory use in packing commodities) Act, 1987, which mandates the use of jute bags for packaging of food grain and sugar.

"More than 65 per cent of the total earnings of the jute industry come from the mandatory procurement done by the Centre. It can be broadly said the procurement is the lifeline of the industry," the textile ministry official said.

"It has recently been observed that a section of the industry is engaging in the malpractice of not marking the bags and siphoning them off. While on the one hand the industry asks for more sops, on the other we see instances like this happening," the official said.

The Centre provides special favours to the industry to ensure that there is sufficient demand for raw jute so that farmers are not affected and lakhs of mill employees retain their jobs.

Jute commissioner Subrata Gupta confirmed the raid at the Howrah warehouses. "The CBI is investigating a similar case. We will inform the Centre about today's development," he said.

Asked about the raid, Indian Jute Mills Association chairman Manish Poddar said: "I am not immediately aware of the development. But the Indian Jute Mills Association does not encourage its members to engage in this sort of malpractice."

The jute commissioner had earlier written to the Union textile ministry, the director-general of supplies and disposals and the Indian Jute Mills Association about how some mills were "illegally importing" cheap jute bags from Bangladesh and Nepal and selling them to the government.

"The industry is already under a lot of stress because of factors such as high price of raw jute and unstable labour relations, which affect productions at mills. Such malpractices by a section of mills give a bad name to the industry," said a Calcutta-based mill owner, requesting anonymity.