 "New Rs 2,000 note issued after the central government announced its demonetisation policy on November 8")
Uttar Pradesh's weavers and cobblers are on the streets, two weeks after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. With no capital, shortage of raw material and non-payment of wages leaving over one crore weavers and cobblers in the state jobless these days.
Further, the situation has reached a point where Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the withdrawal limit for leather traders in order to ensure payment of wages to shoe makers in Agra.
The weavers of the state's handloom belt – Mau, Mubaraqpur and Varanasi – are at the doorsteps of money lenders to meet their daily needs. Yadav's letter to the prime minister has requested that leather traders in Agra be given facility of excess withdrawal from banks to make payment of wages and purchase of raw material. In Agra alone, demonetisation has adversely effected some 55,000 cobblers. The situation is worse in Varanasi and the adjoining districts, where weavers have been hit hard.
According to a leading silk exporter of Varanasi and promoter of Synergy Fabricraft, Rajat Mohan Pathak, the people working in the handloom sector don't work through bank accounts, they also do not file income tax return as doing that would impose on them extra cost burden on their already nil capital. Vineet Kumar Shah, a leading silk transporter in Varanasi, told Business Standard that demonetisation has resulted in loss of around 75 per cent of the total business. He said that retailers have no cash left with them to take the delivery. The president of Varanasi Vastra Udyog Sangh, Jagdish Shah, has already admitted to a loss of Rs 1,000 crore to the silk business due to demonetisation.
The situation is equally bad in Agra, the leather hub of the state, where cobblers are the worst sufferers. According to shoe maker Vaibhav, the pressure of timely delivery had eased but traders do not have money to pay wages and banks are not giving adequate cash. He said that a delegation of leather traders has knocked on the chief minister's doors to solve their problems.
