—PTI
The Cabinet on Sunday approved a Rs. 2,350-crore package for crisis-ridden handloom weavers, mostly concentrated in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
The package is part of a Rs. 6,234-crore scheme for handloom weavers announced last month by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma at Varanasi following an advice from AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is extensively touring U.P. in the run-up to Assembly elections.
The package comprised Rs. 3,880 crore for the loan waivers for three lakh individual weavers and 15,000 cooperative societies, and Rs. 2,350 crore for implementing a six-fold strategy, which includes providing weavers subsidised bank credit and hank yarn.