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Handloom, hosiery industries of Pabna facing setback

From Rancsh Maitra
PABNA. June 23: The handloom and hosiery industries of greater Pabna district have been facing set back due to indifference of the government. Lack of modern technical know-how. lack of capital, high prices of basic raw materials and lack of proper marketing facilities are the reasons behind the crisis.
About 50.000 families are connected with handloom and hosiery industries. The total member of men. women and children, dependent on these two industries, would be about 1.50,000. it is learnt from reliable sources.
From different survey reports, it was gathered, the hand-loom-oriented cottage industries meet about 67 per cent demand of saree. lungi. genzi. of the country. There are about 20.000 semi-automatic handlooms and 1,200 pit-looms in Shahzadpur thana, 18,000 handlooms in Belkuchi thana, 15,000 in Chouhali thana. 12.000 in Ullapara thana. Besides, there are about 10,000 handlooms in Pabna sadar thana. 12.000 in Santhia thana. 8,000 in Sujanagar thana. 5,000 in Chatmohar thana.
Moreover, about 15.000 semi automatic and handloom factories have been set up scatteredly in Kazipur, Raiganj, Tarash. Atgharia, Faridpur and Bera thanas where cheap cloth of varied standards are produced.
The industries situated in Pabna and Sirajganj districts are also found to produce high quality of saree, dhuti, lungi. bed-sheets, towels, genzi. socks and under-wears. These items
are sold in the weekly hats of Shahzadpur. Ullapara, Do-gachhi and Ataikula.
The cloth merchants throughout the country flock to these big hats of the district. They purchase the products worth about several crores of taka. But due to various reasons. there appears to be a gradual fall in the marketing process. Huge quantities of the products are leamt to have been stock-piled for want of buyers. The buyers complain about fall in the quality and rise in the prices of these products.
The producers, when contacted. allege, they cannot compete with the foreign cloth, now entering into our markets freely due to smuggling.
On average, five workers Including children and women are engaged in each handloom.
Due to the increasing problem in this sector, about 20,000 handlooms with about 1.00,000 men. women and children have already faced closure threat in Sea ter Pabna district. This has rown a vast number of people jobless.
The owners are also learnt to have been compelled to change their profession while others are also searching for alternative jobs.
When contacted, some prominent handloom factory owners of the district, told The Daily Star, the prices of cotton yarn have recorded sharp rise. New taxes on the raw materials and the finished products, high prices of other essentials like dyes and chemicals have brought uncertainty in the market situation.
On the other hand, smuggled
cloths have also flooded the market. These products are available at a comparatively low price with its higher quality. Thus the domestic products are being driven out from the local market.
Several experienced busi-. nessmen told this correspondent. the consumers naturally prefer foreign goods, for their low price and high quality.
It may be mentioned, the government introduced handloom loans in the year 1984 for encouraging higher production. An amount of Tk 5,500 was paid as loan against each semi-automatic handloom and a further amount of Tk 3,500 against each country made handloom through the scheduled banks over pass books issued by the Handloom Board of Bangladesh. But, it was later found that a large number of fake weavers had grabbed a huge amount of loan-money coliusively With a section of dishonest bank managers through forged pass books. A big portion of the loan is still unrealised and since then, sanction of new loans has been suspended. This has harmed the interest of genuine weavers. In many cases, these fake passbook owners con not be detected.
The handloom oriented cottage industries of greater Pabna district can still play a vital role in the economy of the district and also of the country as a whole, told a leader of the handloom workers.
Handloom and hosiery industries of the district need proper patronage of the government.