BHUBANESWAR: Taking a cue from the response received by the applique craft raw material bank in the Capital, the Odisha State Co-operative Handicrafts Corporation Limited on Tuesday launched another such initiative at Pipili. It was inaugurated by Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathi. The Development Commissioner, Handicrafts, had earlier in March sanctioned Rs 1.56 crore to the Corporation to set up new raw material banks in the State. In the first phase, Rs 78 lakh was released for construction of the applique craft raw material bank at Pipili. Sources said there are over 2,000 applique artisans working at Pipili and only some of them depend on the raw material bank in Bhubaneswar. Most of these artisans depend upon local middlemen for the primary raw material - dyed cloth. Managing Director of the Corporation Jagannath Mohanty said the middlemen sell inferior quality cloth material to these artisans at cheaper rates and in the long run, the colour fades away. This, in particular, has been affecting the market for the applique products at both national and international levels. The bank would provide raw materials to artisans at subsidised rates which would be less than the open market price. “The artisans will get good quality cloth for their work from the raw material bank. If they depend on private entities they may get it cheaper but the cloth would be of low quality,” said Mohanty. The objective of the raw material bank is to ensure availability of quality raw material on a sustained basis to the artisans at a reasonable price, he added.Functioning of the bank will be governed by a core committee that comprises officials from DC Handicrafts, Government of India, and District Industries Centres (DICs) of Puri and Bhubaneswar. Considering popularity of the craft, the Corporation had opened the first raw material bank of applique craft at Bhubaneswar in August this year.
Comments
0 comment