By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 7, 2016 : The Odisha government on Sunday launched a special scheme to provide financial assistance to senior and skilled weavers of the state to commemorate National Handloom Day,

Weavers who are over 60 years of age and have worked for over 20 years will be entitled to a monthly financial assistance of Rs 500 while weavers over 80 years of age having 20 years of experience will get a monthly financial assistance of Rs 700 per month.

The new scheme “Barishta Bunakara Sahayata Yojana” was announced at a state level function at Jayadev Bhawan in the city here on Sunday. The amount would be directly credited to the bank account of these weavers, he said.

Complimenting the weavers for their extraordinary skills and craftsmanship, which he said are unparalleled in the world, Pataik said the state government is committed to supporting the livelihood of the weavers and promote the unique handloom tradition in Odisha.

The state government has implemented several welfare schemes by providing them with houses, solar lanterns and handloom equipment. Apart from this, the government has also announced insurance schemes for them, he pointed out.

“Handloom is a unique tradition of Odisha and I hope that with our cooperation, the handloom sector of our state will have a vertical growth in the coming days,” the chief minister said.

Textile and Handloom minister Snehangiri Chhuria said the Textile Inspectors and field staffs under the assistant director of Textiles have been directed to visit the house of each weaver’s family to find out their requirements so that their livelihood can be improved further.

“Since the requirements of the weavers vary from place to place, efforts would be made to know the problems of the weavers through site specific surveys so that the government can do its best to solve their problems,” she added.