Baragarh Weavers to Shift to Newly Built Bunakar Bazar Bargarh to Convene National Weavers’ Convention

Bhubaneswar: Chairman WODC and Principal Advisor to Chief Minister Asit Tripathy today advised the district administration to shift the Bunakar to newly constructed Bunakar Bazar after witnessing the Bunakar not using the Bazar during his visit to Bargarh District. This is an exclusive Bazar equipped with all modern amenities constructed by Textiles and Handlooms Department with an estimated cost of Rs. 5 crore.

The WODC Chairman desired to know the reasons of not shifting to the newly constructed Bunakar Bazar. It is learnt from them that new designs developed for Sambalpuri brand sarees are imitated by printing in outside states & non handloom sarees and dress materials of same patterns with lesser prices are thronged into the market resulting in reduction of demand of their products.

Tripathy advised the Weaver’s Association to submit a petition to this effect for appropriate action for their livelihood. Besides Collector was advised to take steps for an All India Weaver’s Convention at Bargarh to be funded by WODC to take notes of their various critical issues for a vision document for implementation.

Prior to that, he proceeded Samadhi Pitha of renowned poet Swabhaba Kabi Gangadhara Meher at Barpalli. Funds to the tune of Rs1.19 crore for the improvement of this pitha with site development has been released by WODC, where construction of statue of the poet, sitting arrangements, cafeteria, etc. have been provisioned.

Tripathy supervised the construction work & advised the District Administration & Executing Agency to take the technical inputs of the architecture to recast the plan & design not to have any fountain & to shift the location of the statue of the poet with proper height, concrete works to be avoided as far as possible, aquire some more land behind the existing area to make the site more attractive & spacious as some portion of the front side is going to be acquired by NH.

Tripathy also visited to the construction site of Biju Patnaik Multi Purpose Hall adjoining to the Govt High School Play ground at Barpalli to take a stock of the work. Sports & Youth Affairs Department of Govt of Odisha has sanctioned funds to the tune of Rs.6.00 Cr for the indoor stadium, gymnasium and other indoor sports activities in an area of 5000 sq ft. Work up to roof level has been done. Tripathy interacted with the office bearers of District Athletic Association & the executing agency and advised to handover this project after completion to the District Athletic Association. He suggested in favour of involvement of Barpalli ULB for better use, management, functionality, maintenance & sustainability. Quality & workmanship of the work is found to be satisfactory.

He desired that NAC should come forward to shoulder the ownership of the project with active involvement of the committee for future maintenance & sustainability.

During this visit Manisha Banarjee, Collector, Bargarh, Dr.Ajit Mishra, CEO, Sunil Nayak, Technical Consultant, WODC, Narayan Sahu, Advisor to WODC, Gati Krushna Mishra Expert Member, Chairman, Barpalli NAC & other senior Officials were present.