Srinagar, June 2: Minister for Industries and Commerce, Surjeet Singh Slathia today said the government will enact more string law to check sale of spurious handicrafts in the Valley.
 Slathia said the much needed Pashmina Quality Control Laboratory coming up at a cost of Rs 50 lakh, shall be commissioned in August this year, which shall help to curb the practice of selling spurious shawls in the name of Kashmiri brand.
 The minister was speaking at an interactive session with the artisans of Kashmir at Handicrafts Museum-cum-School of Designs at Exhibition Ground Srinagar.
 Slathia said to provide marketing channels to the craftspersons during the current tourist season and ensuing Amarnath Yatra, a calendar for organizing Handicrafts Exhibition cum Sale events from May15 to September has been planned so that artisans could sell their products to the tourists without exploitation of middlemen.
 Slathia instructed the officers to provide equal opportunities to the poor artisans to participate in trade fairs and handicrafts exhibitions organized by the handicrafts and handloom departments in and outside the state adding that there should not be monopoly of a particular group or influential people in this regard.
  “The uplift of poor artisans was the prime concern of the present coalition government led by dynamic Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah”, Slathia said adding that those artisans should be provided stalls in trade fairs on priority, who have never gone outside the state so far.
 Responding to the demands of the artisans, Slathia said sale of machine made handicrafts shall be discouraged at all levels as it cannot compete handmade crafts, for which J&K is acclaimed globally. He asked the concerned officers to formulate a viable proposal for setting up Artisan’s Housing Colony, where poor artisans could be provided housing facilities as well as working place to manufacture their products.
 He also assured that the matter regarding exemption of Value Added Tax (VAT) on wood carving products shall be vigorously perused in the Finance Department. He also directed the concerned officers to formulate a proposal for revival of sick handicrafts societies.
 The minister said 70,000 Artisan Credit Cards (ACC) will be given to the artisans of Srinagar this year to enable them to get hassle free credit facilities from the Banking Institutions.
  “These stalls,” the minister said, “would be set up by the handicrafts and handloom departments in all the major tourist destinations preferably at Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Baltal and Sonamarg.”
 He said possibilities shall also be explored to set up sale counters for two months near Boulevard where the genuine craftspersons could be provided an opportunity to sell their products to the tourists.
 The Interactive session, an official statement said, was aimed at to reach out to artisans of Kashmir directly to get first hand appraisal about their problems and to solicit their suggestions to give boost to the handicraft and handloom activities in a big way.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST