NAGPUR, NOV 11: While the Orissa cyclone may have deprived its victims of bare necessities, it has reversed the fortunes of Nagpur's handloom weavers who have been on the brink of starvation.The State Government has ordered handloom articles worth Rs 1.89 crore to be despatched to the calamity-hit areas. The aid package consists of 50,000 pieces each of saris, dhotis and bedsheets.Last Friday, the managing director of the Maharashtra State Handloom Corporation, Nagpur, received instructions from the State Department of Cooperation and Textiles, Mumbai, to supply the items. The consignment was to be sent to the Special Relief Commissioner in Jhursuguda, Orissa.Action taken in this regard was to be facsimiled on an urgent basis to the Principal Secretary, Rehabilitation and Relief Department of the State Government.Acting upon the directives, the handloom corporation packed off the ordered quantity of saris, dhotis and bedhseets from its unsold stocks.Minister for Agriculture and Textiles, Ranjit Deshmukh, was present when the 12 trucks left the MSHC godowns in Kalmeshwar Thursday. Nanak Ramteke, Director, Handloom and Textiles, said the total value of the consignment is about Rs 1.89 crore.The clothes and bedsheets will undoubtedly mean a lot to the people whose lives have been shattered by the cyclone. The aid also comes as a boon to the neglected weavers of the region who have been on the brink of starvation for years.Huge quantities of unsold stocks have been lying in the handloom corporations' godowns, thanks to the lack of marketing initiatives. Ever since the Government withdrew the Janata Cloth Scheme, the corporation has been finding it extremely difficult to sustain itself, leave alone arrange for adequate stocks of yarn for the weavers.The bulk order for Orissa should prove a shot in the arm for the ailing MSHC which, some thought, was on the verge of being closed down.
