The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Buy handicrafts at Collectorate!

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Thursday, Feb 14, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Buy handicrafts at Collectorate!

Staff Reporter

Artisans in the district can sell their articles on the Collectorate premises

Better sales: Medak Collector B. Venkatesam at the handicrafts workshop in Sangareddy on Wednesday.

Sangareddy: Artisans in the district can now display and sell their articles at the district Collectorate premises here every Monday, being the Grievances day.

District Collector B.Venkatesam made this offer to the department handicrafts addressing the one-day local workshop at the Deendar Khan function hall.

He wanted the department to allocate dates to different artisan groups so that they could benefit from the large crowd present at the office on Mondays.

He advised the painters who earned a living by painting huge hoardings to learn digital designing.

This will help them in easy transition into digital printing. He wanted them to benefit from a plethora of schemes offered by the Government of India.

Welfare measures

Elaborating the welfare measures under taken by the union government S. A. Razzack the assistant director of handicrafts said that all the artisans must first apply and obtain an identity card. The identity card was being issued by the development commissioner handicrafts.

Equipped with the identity card artisans could apply for the Rajiv Gandhi Shilp Swasthya Beema Yojana.

Annual coverage

The Rajiv Gandhi Shilp Swasthya Beema Yojana provides an annual coverage of Rs. 15,000 for a family of four in selected hospitals all over the State with a payment of only Rs. 75 per annum for the reserved categories.

The scheme offered in collaboration with the ICICI Lombard provides insurance to a tune of Rs. 1 lakh to the artisan in case of death of the artisan.

He wanted the artisans to benefit from programmes like Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Hasthashilp Vikas Yojana for integrated development of craft clusters, and Jana Shree Bima Yojana with the help of Life Insurance Corporation.

Credit cards

Addressing the workshop the assistant general manager of State Bank of India K. Srivenkateswara Rao wanted the women artisans who attended the workshop to form into groups to avail assistance from financial institutions.

He said that individuals and groups could avail loans from Rs. 50,000 to 2 lakh under the Artisan credit card scheme.

The programme also has a insurance component to help the beneficiary.

A large number of artisans from different parts of the district attended the day-long workshop and also exhibited their products.

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