VARANASI: Weavers associated with the Banaras Bunkar Samiti, a confederation of handloom weavers, also arrived at Beniabagh ground to give their charter of demands to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday.

Since they had no access to Sonia Gandhi, the memorandum of demands was received by the personnel escorting her. "We submitted our memorandum to draw her attention towards the problems of the weaver community," said Lalchand Ram, the BBS president. BBS, a self help group-based organisation, has a membership of over 1,200 handloom weavers.

In his memorandum, he said the condition of the handloom weavers and artisans, who earned substantial amount of foreign exchange, was deteriorating day by day due to the slump in business. The Congress president was urged to connect the weavers and artisans to the mainstream of development by adopting suitable measures.

Their demands included formation of a separate ministry for handloom and handicraft, giving statues of special organised sector to handloom and handicraft, proper publicity of handloom mark anti-dumping duty on Chinese fabrics, weavers self help groups to be given facilities like co-operative committees, provision of weaver credit card and loan at low interest rate, establishment of textile park, silk depot and national institute of fashion technology in Varanasi, special hospital in weaver dominated localities, special package to women weavers and artisans.

Meanwhile, BBS, under its Bunkar Sandesh Abhiyan, is also going to hold a panchayat of handloom weavers and artisans at the resource centre of Human Welfare Association, Sarnath, on Monday to discuss the issues related to the weaver community.

5 Apr 2009, 2231 hrs IST, TNN

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com