Kathua: Director Handicrafts and Handloom, Jammu, Dr. Vikas Gupta, along with Managing Director, JKSICOP Atul Sharma Wednesday conducted an extensive tour of Basohli to take stock of progress with regard to promotion of Basohli Pashmina, Basohli Paintings & other Art and Craft activities.
During the visit, an interaction was held with the artisans/weavers associated with Pashmina and Basohli Paintings. Registration certificates were also distributed amongst the craftsmen.
Artisans/ Weavers were informed about various Developmental Programs like Development of Clusters, GI registration of Basohli Painting/ Basohli Pashmina, Financial Support Schemes etc introduced by the department for their welfare. They were also made aware about the Basohli Pashmina and Basohli Paintings, Common Facility Centres being established by the department in near future, for the purpose of which land was identified during the visit.
While speaking on the occasion, Director Vikas Gupta said that the development of Common Facility Centre is an endeavour of the department to provide all the basic facilities (like Common Work Shed, Raw Material, Grading/ Packaging Units, Testing Units) for crafts persons associated with Basohli Paintings/ Basohli Pashmina crafts under one common roof which shall help in developing brand of these niche products.
Besides, artisans were motivated to come forward and get themselves registered with the department to avail benefits of various departmental programmes.
Later, Vikas Gupta also visited M/s Charkha Spinners Handloom Weaving Industrial Cooperative Society Ltd. Basohli and house of S.S. Baloria, Artisan, Basohli Paintings to have an insight of these crafts and associated issues so as to develop a road map for their promotion.
Additional Deputy Commissioner, Basohli, Tilak Raj, Development Officer Handicrafts & Handloom Jammu, Fareed Kohli, Assistant Director Handicrafts/ Handloom, Kathua Nishtha Nayyar, Assistant Director Handloom Udhampur, N.D. Verma and Deputy Registrar, INDUSCOS Joginder Mangol were also present.
