SHILLONG: The State Planning Board has asked the state government to increase the allocation of funds for the sericulture and weaving department which is generating income and creating livelihood for local weavers of the state.
Talking to reporters after the working group of the board held a review meeting with the department, the co-chairman of the board, John F Kharshiing, said the government in the year 2015-16 allocated Rs 2.52 crore in the sericulture sector whereas the allocation was reduced to Rs2.39 crore this year.
As far as assistance for handloom modernisation was concerned, the government in the year 2014-15 allocated Rs23 lakh and it was reduced to Rs20 lakh in the year 2015-16.
Kharshiing pointed out that the government last year sanctioned Rs 9.17 crore under the income generation programme and it was reduced to Rs 5 crore this year.
Asked about the cut in the allocation, Kharshiing said the allocation might have been reduced due to fund constraints since the issue of ban on coal mining by the National Green Tribunal was still on in the state coupled with the doing away of non-plan schemes by the central government. He informed there were around 38,000 weavers in the state with 21,000 eri weavers, 6,200 muga weavers and 11,700 mulberry weavers.
During the review, the board inquired from the department about the total area in the state covered for weaving activities and department informed the group that around 23000 acres in the state have been covered.
Interestingly, the weavers registered with the department last year generated an income of Rs 45 lakh. Over the past couple of years, the income has increased substantially.
The department, however till date, does not have the database of the private weavers in the state even though it has counted around approximately 38000 weavers in the state and each one of them were supposedly generating an income of Rs 10000 to Rs 150000 per year.
“The census is on to identify the private weavers,” he said. According to Kharshiing, the working group of the planning board was also informed that three apparel and garment units were coming up in Ampati, Tura and one in Ri Bhoi district.
Kharshiing said the students of the National Institute of Fashion Technology were also visiting the weavers for research and to explore their fabrics besides weavers also cooperated with the institute for a fashion programme.
In order to provide the weavers with necessary raw material, the state government is also in the process of establishing a mini yarn bank in Shillong and Tura.
Responding to queries, Kharshiing said weavers in the year 2015-16 targeted eri plantation in 78 acres with 170 rearing houses besides planting muga in 44 acres and mulberry in 50 acres and all the targets were achieved.
The weavers under the sericulture development programme also achieved the target of planting mulberry and muga in 200 acres respec-tively besides eri in 250 acres.
The weavers have also done quite well as far as production of handloom fabrics were concerned. In 2014-15, they produced handloom fabric of 25000 square metres which increased to 26418 square metres in 2015-16. The target for the year 2017-18 is 28000 square metres.
