Vijayawada: Collector P Rajababu assures all help to Kalamkari workers

Vijayawada : Krishna district collector P Rajababu visited Kalamkari units in Pedana on Wednesday and interacted with the unit owners and the workers.

Speaking on the occasion, collector said that Kalamkari is a rare art and assured the owners of Kalamkari units to promote their art. He said that district administration will extend support for production and marketing of Kalamkari hand painted textiles and will conduct fashion shows and display Kalamkari handloom products on the Krishna district official website, he said.

Collector visited the Coromandal Kalamkari unit and interacted with print designer P Srinivas who explained about the colours, dyes and manufacturing of Kalamkari clothes with beautiful designs, particularly the traditional Indian designs.

Later, he visited Jhansi Kalamkari unit and spoke to the owner P Koteswara Rao. Te owner explained about the different stages of production, increasing prices of raw material, workers’ skill and other details to collector. Kalamakari blocks designer S Gangadhar explained about the creation of innovative designs with the wooden blocks that are used for printing on the cloth.

Collector Rajababu instructed the Pedana tahsildar to find a site for setting up a library which will be useful to the Kalamkari designers, unit owners and workers.

The unit owners told the collector that the prices of cloth and colours have increased and requested to reduce taxes on clothes. They also requested to give subsidies on purchase of cloth and colours and set up a training centre to impart training to the workers. Industries GM R Venkatarao, Deputy director Vijay Kumar, handlooms assistant director K Apparao and others accompanied collector.