As intimated in the earlier two editions of JILTA and as communicated to Members individually by invitation cards posted on 24th February, the Inaugural Ceremony of LEXPO-XXXIV was organized in the Salt Lake Stadium at 5.30 pm on Wednesday the 3rd March, 2010.

On arrival, Sri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Govt. of West Bengal took his seat on the dias. He was then presented a flower bouquet by Sri Shiladitya Deb Choudhury, Jt. Secretary, ILTA.
LEXPO-XXXIV was then inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister by lighting the inaugural lamp.

Sri Arnab Jha, President ILTA then delivered his Welcome Address stating among other things the following:

Competitiveness and maintenance of Ecology are now both threat and responsibility to all of us. Population, poverty, illiteracy are added issues. We have to rethink, resurge and revamp almost everything and LEXPO is no exception. In one way we have to bring the huge marked consumers nearer and in the other way to draw respect by educating the people on different use of products from hides and skins and the enormous changes that are continuously brewing.

ILTA is poised to celebrate VIII Asia International Conference of Leather Science & Technology (AICLST) during 12th to 14th Nov., 2010. The prominent Asian countries especially the main stake holder of the Industry, China will join the program with the other Asian Countries like Taiwan, Japan and presumably Bangladesh and Pakistan. All Leather producing countries of Asia will be requested to join this gala program. The theme has been drawn “Leather 2020: Challenges and Opportunities”. This program plans for sustained development of leather sector its march towards 2020.The focus of this Congress would be to address the challenges and opportunities arising out of meeting effectively in the areas of (a) Market driven, (b) Process Technology driven, (c) Product driven, (d) Human Resources driven. I, as a member of the leather technologist fraternity in the state and President of ILTA earnestly request Hon’ble CM on behalf of the industry to extend all including financial support to make remarkable presentation of the state in the whole world of this discipline.

Sri Susanta Mallick, General Secretary of ILTA then addressed the gathering. After broadly outlining the main objectives of ILTA, Sri Mallick touched upon the following specific activities carried out during the past year.

Towards the relief of ‘Aila’ affected persons in 24-Parganas. ILTA along with Alumini Association, Government College of engineering & Leather Technology & Indian Chemical Promotion Association contributed relief materials worth 2 lac rupees. ILTA Executive Committee Members and other Members participated whole heartedly and distributed relief material in the affected areas in two phases and approx 2000 families were covered.

In order to facilitate successful execution of “the Implementing BDS (Business Development Service) in the leather sector at Kolkata”, the EDI, Ahmedabad has signed an MOU with ILTA to the effect that ILTA will provide encompassing support for successful implementation of the project.

During the duration of just concluded Lexpo at Siliguri, training programme of 17 days on Leather Products Manufacturing was conducted jointly by ILTA, MSME and CLRI participated by 50 candidates. The programme was completed successfully and ILTA will continue organizing such programme on regular basis.

This Lexpo at Kolkata is 34th in the series. Several Govt. Departments, Exporters are participating in this fair. Apart from in and around Kolkata, there are participants from M. P., Ranchi and Uttar Pradesh. We are very much thankful to the Department of Higher Education, Govt. of West Bengal and the faculty members of Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology to bring up a Theme Pavilion in this Lexpo within a very short span of time.

We are definite with dedicated contributions from our members, strong support from the industry CLRI, GCELT, CLE and other associations and with the co-operation & assistance of the State and Central Govt., ILTA will cover a long way with its noble activities.

Sri Debashis Chakraborty, Convenor, LEXPO-XXXIV then addressed the gathering reminding them that “Lexpo was first held in 1977 and that from 1977 to 1981 it used to be organized in five star hotels as Buyer/Seller Meet. Since general public participation in the hotel premises was scanty. In the year 1982, Lexpo was reoriented to reach out to the domestic market along with the export market. In that very year with the help of West Bengal Govt. specially with the help of Late Chittabrata Mazumder, the then Minister-in-Charge, Cottage & Small Scale Industries, Govt. of West Bengal and ably supported by our dedicated members, LEXPO was organized at the open ground of Kolkata Maidan.Through this measure a direct interaction between the manufacturers and the customers could become possible providing the need of marketing opportunities to the manufacturers and giving them ample encouragement to streamline their various leather products to the common people.

Sri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Govt. of West Bengal in his inaugural address stated that he was happy to be associated with the inaugural ceremony of Lexpo which ILTA has been successfully organizing for the past 34 years. He hoped that like every year there will be good business transactions in the fair and wished the fair all success.

Sri Mrinal Chakraborty, Chief Coordinator, Lexpo Secretariat, offered a vote of thanks to all concerned.

At the conclusion of the inaugural ceremony the Hon’ble Chief Minister paid a visit to “The Theme Pavilion.”

Some photographs taken during the inaugural ceremony are reproduced in the next pages.

Sri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurating LEXPO-XXXIV by lighting the inaugural lamp. Looking on from (L to R) Sri Arnab Jha, Sri Susanta Mallick,Sri Debashis Chakraborty and Sri Mrinal Chakraborty

Sri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee delivering his inaugural address

Sri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee after visiting the “Theme Pavilion”

A section of the gathering on the inauguration day in front of temporary office of ILTA at the fair ground