The Centre has announced the Rs 2,350-crore relief package for the handloom sector that is facing a serious existential crisis, Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma stated in Lok Sabha.
Most of the weavers are in Uttar Pradesh and to provide them with cheap credit and cheap hank yarn, the government has decided to offer them an adequate package by reorganizing schemes such as integrated handlooms development scheme and mills gate price, the minister said in parliament.
The package provides for a Rs 6,234-crore scheme for handloom workers, Rs 3,880 crore for loan waivers for 3 lakh individual weavers and 15,000 cooperative societies, and Rs 2,350 crore through subsidized bank credit and hank yarn.
The Rs 2,350 crore assistance provides for an interest grant of 3 per cent for three years to weavers, who may also be provided with subsidized yarn from the National Handloom Development Corporation.
The subsidized credit will be routed through SIDBI, NABARD and the nationalized banks. While the Finance the loan waver scheme was announced by the finance minister in the Budget for 2011-12 but the Rs 2,350 crore package was announced later as an additional help.