PM asks FM to extend low interest loans to handloom weavers

New Delhi, June 28 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram to consider the feasibility of extending the low interest facility provided for agricultual loans to handloom weavers as well.

Launching the ''Handloom Mark'' here today, Dr Singh said that he had asked the Textile and Finance Ministers to look at the problem of debt which is afflicting handloom cooperatives so that this can be rescheduled or cooperatives recapitalised in a manner similar to that done for cooperative banks through the Vaidyanathan Committee.

''I am hopeful that we will resolve this problem in the next three months,'' he said and acknowledged that high cost of credit and debt overhang as serious constraints and underscored the need to address these problems on ''a priority basis''.

Reiterating the Government's commitment to adress the problems of weavers, the Prime Minister announced that 230 new Yarn Depots will be opened soon to provide easy access to yarn fo all clusters with more than a thousand looms. He also announced that Government will cover another 100 clusters in this year under the Integrated Handloom Cluster Development Scheme.

Dr Singh said this new Handloom Mark would help consumers distinguish between genuine hand woven fabric and power loom and machine-made fabric and that it would help individual weavers, weavers cooperative societies, master weavers, retailers and exporters.

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