Department of Handicrafts Kupwara today organized a day long awareness camp at town hall with the District Development Commissioner (DDC) Kupwara Anshul Garg as chief guest.The programme was attended by AD Handloom Kashif Altaf, AD Handicrafts Mudasir Ahmed, Block training officers of Handicraft Department, besides a huge number of Artisans, Weavers and Trainees.Speaking on the occasion, the DDC exhorted the trainees to take advantage of the government sponsored schemes meant for handicraft and handloom development, so that they can earn livelihood by setting up self-help groups to establish income generating units. He directed concerned officers to cover far-flung and hilly areas of the Kupwara district which have not availed these facilities so far.Various speakers including experts from the Handicrafts Department spoke on the occasion and it was informed that there are 28 working training centres in the district with 700 Trainees. Among 28 Centres 10 are located in Handwara Block, 09 in trehgam and 09 at Kupwara, which include boarder areas like Machil and Karnah. Apart from this, 05 centres are working under Niti Aayog in the district with 100 Trainees.AD Handicrafts Mudasir Ahmad also spoke on the occasion. He said, that the department has registered 307 artisans during the current financial year. An amount of Rs. 85 lac has been distributed among the beneficiaries as interest subsidy under artisan credit card scheme.Later, certificates were also distributed among outgoing Trainees of recently expired training centers under Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Scheme Cluster Khumriyal.