The tussle between the Congress-led UPA government and the BSP government in Uttar Pradesh is set to reach a new level with the Centre giving a `6,234-crore package for 13 lakh weavers on Saturday.
Commerce minister Anand Sharma, who is also in charge of textiles, announced this in Varanasi less than a week after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote him a letter
seeking concessions
for debt-ridden weavers.
The package, to be implemented from January, includes a `3,884-crore debt waiver and `2,350 crores for a sixfold strategy to uplift weavers in the 12th Plan. It will benefit two lakh weavers in UP.
Individual weavers will get up to `50,000 and it will help 15,000 weavers’ cooperatives,” Mr Sharma said at a press conference in Varanasi. The BSP, meanwhile, termed it an “election gimmick”.