The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : 1,500 poor handloom weavers to get Rs. 1 lakh subsidy to buy powerlooms

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Tuesday, Jun 28, 2011
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

1,500 poor handloom weavers to get Rs. 1 lakh subsidy to buy powerlooms

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The State Government has taken up a scheme to help 1,500 poor handloom weavers to upgrade by switching over to powerlooms.

Minister for Textiles and Minor Irrigation Govind M. Karjol told presspersons here on Monday that under the scheme, the handloom weavers would be given financial assistance to buy two powerlooms at a cost of Rs. 1 lakh each. The Government would provide a subsidy of Rs. 1 lakh while the beneficiaries have to avail themselves of a loan of Rs. 1 lakh from cooperative institutions. For the SC,ST communities, the subsidy will cover 90 per cent of the project cost, he said.

Such a massive subsidy scheme had been taken up as the handloom weavers were living in a very poor condition and the earnings of most of them varied from Rs. 60 to 70 a day, the Minister noted.

“In fact, their living standards are much below those living in slums in cities,” he remarked.

Pointing out that the State had 48,000 handloom weaver families, he said 1,500 poor families would be chosen from among them.

Mr. Karjol said 833 weavers in the State would be benefitted from the “Residence-cum-Workshop” scheme this year under which the Government would provide subsidy assistance to weavers to build their houses which would double up as work places.

Under the scheme, the Government would provide a subsidy of Rs. 40,000 while the beneficiaries have to chip in with a contribution of Rs. 20,000, which would be in the form of loans from cooperative institutions.

Twenty-five per cent of the scheme would be earmarked for those from SC, ST communities, he noted.

Removing silt

Mr. Karjol said the Minor Irrigation Department had taken up works on removing silt from 1,894 tanks in the State. Of this, work on 1,833 tanks had been completed and these tanks had been handed over to Tank Users' Societies for maintenance.

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