Textile Minister Shivanand Patil said the State Government would attempt to create a brand for handloom goods like Ilkal and Udupi sarees. Patil said that a Government decision about the weavers’ demand for 20 HP electricity during a meeting of state-level weavers and representatives from the Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation (KHDC).
“We will ensure that weavers get facilities on par with unorganised sector workers. We will discuss with banks to provide hassle-free loans to weavers. We will conduct another survey to add all weavers’ names to the Nekar Samman scheme,” he added.
He also said that transport, police, forest and other departments’ employees purchase uniforms from weavers. “We will also request the education minister to procure school uniforms from weavers. We will re-develop Priyadarshini showrooms and provide an online platform to sell handloom products in the next 2-3 months,” he stated.
A reserve fund of Rs. 1,000 crore has been requested by weavers from Dharwad, Belagavi, Gadag, Bagalkot, and other areas. They have also asked for free public education for the children of weavers, health insurance, access to nationalised bank loans, etc. There were also other officials and weaver leaders, including the commissioner of the textile department, Kumar, the KHDC MD and Dharwad DC Gurudatta Hegde, joint director BR Yogesh, and others.
