Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Feb 17: The Government’s failure to stop manufacture of spurious machine made Pashmina by some influential traders has posed threat and is denting the reputation of the handmade Kashmiri Pashmina.
The local artisans allege that scores of influential traders with political connections have introduced spinning machines and power looms despite a ban imposed on their use by the government. “Wealthy traders who have strong connections are manufacturing machine made Pashmina but the authorities don’t seem to bother. The laws and bans are merely on paper,” alleged a local artisan, Muhammad Shaban.
“Moreover, this spurious Pashmina gives a bad name to the original handmade Kashmiri Pashmina which is known for its superior quality all over the globe,” he added.
With an aim to check the authenticity of genuine Kashmiri Pashmina, a testing centre had been setup by the Union ministry of Commerce at Crafts Development Institute (CDI) here in Baghi Ali Mardan Khan. However, the local artisans allege that the centre is there for namesake only and no quality checks of any sort are carried out there.
“The establishment of testing centre is basically useless as it was never started. The only thing there is a building with a bunch of fancy equipment inside but it was never put to work, no quality checking has ever taken place there, it’s a wastage of resources,” Rouf Ahmad Qureshi, who is president Kashmir Pashmina Karigar Union (KPKU), alleged.
Director Handicrafts, Gazanfar Ali, however claimed that the government aims to promote genuine handmade Pashmina and the testing centre is a huge step in that direction.
“Our effort is to remove all fake handicrafts being sold in the State in the name of Kashmir. To start with spurious Pashmina shawls would be replaced by the Kashmir patent hand woven original Pashmina shawls. This would make genuineness rule the roost in Pashmina manufacturing in the State and will also ensure respect and substantial remuneration to the weavers,” he said.
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