State urges Centre for loan waiver for weavers

The Orissa government has urged the Centre to write off the cooperative loans pending against the weavers in the state on the lines of the loan waiver scheme for the farmers.

Loans worth Rs 285 crore, extended by different weavers' cooperative societies, are pending for recovery in the state.

“We have written to the Centre to write off the cooperative loans pending agaisnt the weavers in the state. The chief minister Naveen Patnaik has also discussed the matter with the Union textiles minister”, said Arati Ahuja, the textiles and handloom secretary of the Orissa government.

The waiver of cooperative loans would benefit thousands of weavers in the state who had taken loans from 577 weavers’ cooperative societies and the apex cooperative body. As per the latest census, the total number of looms and weavers in the state are 1, 19,005 and 4, 15,261 respectively. Out of these, 79,368 looms and 1, 09,627 weavers are in the cooperative fold.

The state government has laid emphasis on the development of the handloom industries in the state in the organized sector by providing modern looms and accessories and imparting training to weavers for skill development and marketing support, Ahuja said. The state government has also instructed the field level staff to implement the schemes benefiting the weavers in letter and spirit for the upliftment of the economic condition of the weavers, she added.

Ahuja was here to attend a workshop to educate the weavers’ community on the different schemes being implemented for them by the government. The schemes include the health insurance scheme and education scheme for the children of the weavers.

She pointed out that the cluster development approach has been adopted as a focused strategy for developing and assisting all the activities pertaining to handloom production and organization at the weavers’ habitats. As many as 26 clusters have been developed so far, out of which five are major clusters.