Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Ranjan Prakash Thakur, exhorted upon the weavers to update their craft and designs keeping contemporary clientage in mind as customers would have a vast choice to buy products.Principal Secretary made these remarks while addressing the 7th National Handloom day celebration at Craft Tourist Village Kanihama organized jointly by Union Ministry of Textiles and district administration Budgam.The daylong event was also attended by Director Handloom and Handicrafts, Mehmood Ahmad Shah and Additional District Development Commissioner, Budgam, Akramullah Tak, as guests of honor.Principal Secretary maintained that weavers under present scenario had to face a lot of challenges as world has changed and the customers had vast options and choices available with them. He said the thrust should be on publicity and demonstrations as these are proving pivotal pillars in selling products at national and international level.Regarding craft village Kanihama, Ranjan Prakash highlighted the importance of the location saying that the main objective should be to ensure that any tourist visiting Gulmarg shall also go to the centre. “Their visit will not only enhance purchasing but will also boost publicity of this famous product globally”, he maintained.
Speaking on the occasion, Director Handicrafts and Handloom presented a curtain raiser on establishing of craft village Kanihama. He said apart from boosting potential and talent of weavers of Kani Shawl the department’s motive is to give national and international market directly to the weavers besides saving them from exploitation at the hands of middleman. He said the government is going to introduce several beneficial schemes like Education Scheme policy for small weavers having bunch of incentives for their children.ADDC said that 90 percent work on Kanihama craft village has already been completed while the remaining 10 percent will be completed within 2 months. He said out of Rs 2.59 crore project cost Rs 1.3 crore have been spent till date adding that the craft village centre has been equipped with many basic facilities.Earlier, Principal Secretary inspected the stalls established by many national award winners. He appreciated the efforts of weavers for their overwhelming participation in this unique art.Meanwhile, he also visited demonstration centers where weavers demonstrated their weaving skills on the spot.