BY OUR STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, April 10: With Rongali Bihu on the doorstep, the Assam government has chosen some off-beat routes to popularize traditiol handloom woven gamosas across India.
The State Handloom & Textile department has written to the Indian Army to make traditiol gamosas available in its canteens situated in different parts of the country. This is for the first time that the State government has requested the Army to be involved in such an initiative with the aim to make people living in various parts of India aware of the value and prestige that a gamosa carries.
Beside the Army, the North East Petroleum Dealers Association has also been requested for the first time to popularize traditiol gamosas made by local weavers. The Handloom & Textile department has written to the association to make gamosas available at all its retail petrol and diesel outlets in the region.
Dispur’s initiative has come at a time when the trading of imported powerloom gamosas poses a serious threat to the traditiol handloom-woven Assamese gamosa.
As the Rongali Bihu festivities near, consignments of imported powerloom gamosas from outside the State are set to invade locals markets yet again this year. Sources said truckloads of such gamosas – mostly from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh – have already reached Dhubri and Golokganj and from there, these are being brought into the State surreptitiously in small numbers. The imported gamosas are priced much lower than the traditiolly made gamosa which is a uniquely designed, multi-use cloth having immense significance in Assamese society.
No Bohag Bihu is complete without the Bihuwan, the offering of gamosas as a mark of respect to elders or as a gift of love to near and dear ones
Handloom, textile and sericulture minister Ranjit Dutta told The Sentinel on Monday that if his department’s experiment to popularize traditiol gamosas becomes a success it would go for tie up with different other agencies for the same purpose. He said the handloom and textile department is trying to make some different approaches to make traditiol gamosas an all India presence.
Admitting that the prices of traditiol handloom woven gamosas is higher than those imported from outside the state Dutta said the government has set up yarn banks to provide yarns to local weavers at 25 per cent subsidy to reduce of the cost of gamosa production.
Sources, however, said imported gamosas would continue invade the local markets especially during the Rongali Bihu as the traditiol handloom weavers cannot meet the huge demand of such product in the festive days.
“My department’s thrust will be on more production of gamosas by local artisans at low cost to reduce importing of such traditiol item,” the Minister said.