‘PM MITRA Park scheme a big step to promote MP’s handicrafts, handlooms’

Bhopal: The newly announced PM MITRA Park scheme will be a big step to promote and conserve Madhya Pradesh’s handicrafts, handlooms and artisans globally, along with taking towards MP in the line of self-reliance, MP senior minister Gopal Bhargava has said.

The PM MITRA (Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) park scheme, which has recently been announced by the Union government, the Dhar district of the state has been selected to set up the textile parks along with the seven sites across the country.

Bhargava, who has the Public Works Department and Cottage and Rural Industries portfolios has said that the state government is continuously working to promote and conserve the state’s handicrafts, handlooms and artisans with intensity.

“With the announcement of the PM MITRA Park scheme by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a unique heritage of Chenderi and Maheshwari sarees in textile sector, will get a new hight in the world”, Bhargava told Millennium Post.

“Under the scheme, the proposed textile park will be set up at Bhainsola village in the Dhar district of the state, it will also promote the traditional Bagh and Chandana prints”, the Minister also said.

He said that during the recently held Global Investors Summit in Indore, a tripartite MoU (memorandum of undertaking) for getting the GI (geographical indication) tag to the state’s traditional handloom products, Nandana print and Panjadari, has been signed among the Textile Committee of the Union Textile Ministry, MP Sant Ravidas Handicrafts and handlooms Development Corporation and NABARD (national bank for agriculture and rural development.

“With GI tagging, the state’s traditional products will get an international identity and it will also promote the culture of the state across the world. And the PM MITRA Park will be helpful in making MP a self-sufficient state because it will open doors to local artisans for employment opportunities”, Minister Bhargava added. With the move, the products of the cottage and rural industries will also get an international market, he further added.

Madhya Pradesh is a state of rich culture, it has more than 20 per cent tribal population. It is considered that the step of setting up a textile park under the PM MITRA scheme in the tribal-dominated district of Dhar could promote and conserve its culture as well as traditional artisans.

“Many many thanks to PM Narendra Modi Ji for taking the decision of setting up the PM MITRA Park in MP’s Dhar. With this, the textiles of Madhya Pradesh, which has a unique heritage of Chenderi and Maheshwari sarees, will get new expansion and configuration”, said MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for selecting the state under the scheme.

MP has been chosen under the scheme after qualifying in the various criterion such as connectivity, existing ecosystem, textile industry policy, infrastructure, utility services etc. The Ministry of textile will provide financial support in the form of Development Capital Support upto Rs 500 crore for each park. A competitive incentive support upto Rs 300 crore per park to the units shall also be provided to incentivise speedy implementation.

On the concept of PM Modi’s 5F vision (Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign), the Union government has announced the sites for setting up 7 mega textile parks each in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujrat, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to make India a global hub for textile manufacturing and export.