Govt approves Rs 2,350-cr package for handloom weavers

The government has approved the Rs 2,350-crore package for weavers in the crisis-ridden handloom sector, Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma said in a statement in Lok Sabha.

The weavers are mostly concentrated in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

"To meet the critical needs of cheap credit and cheap hank yarn for the sector, the government has approved a comprehensive package for the handloom sector by modifying the two existing schemes, Integrated Handlooms Development Scheme and Mills Gate Price," Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma said in a statement in Lok Sabha.

The Integrated Handlooms Development Scheme is for availability of cheap credit, while Mills Gate Price Scheme is meant for availability of subsidised hank yarn.

The package is part of a Rs 6,234-crore scheme for handloom weavers announced last month by Sharma at Varanasi.

It comprised Rs 3,880 crore for loan waivers for 3 lakh individual weavers and 15,000 cooperative societies, and Rs 2,350 crore for implementing a six-fold strategy which includes providing weavers subsidised bank credit and hank yarn.

The Rs 2,350 crore package includes providing interest subvention of 3 per cent for three years to weavers, who will also get subsidised yarn from the National Handloom Development Corporation.

The subsidised credit will be made available through SIDBI, NABARD and the nationalised banks.

While the loan waiver scheme was announced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget for 2011-12, about Rs 2,350 crore package was added later during course of the year.