Row over unveiling of Asia's first handloom park

Bhopal: Asia’s first handloom park proposed at Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh’s Ashok Nagar district appears to have been caught in the crossfire of political rivalry between chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Congress’ prospective CM candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Mr Scindia’s followers on Saturday threatened to oppose the move by the chief minister to unveil the handloom park, billed as the first-of-its-kind concept in the world, at Chanderi on Sunday.

“The handloom park is the brain child of Mr Scindia who got it sanctioned during the previous UPA government at the Centre nine years ago. Mr Scindia has been personally supervising the progress of the project even since it took off.

“The chief minister has absolutely no role to play in the entire project. But, he seems to be in a hurry to inaugurate the project even before its completion to take away the credit for it from Mr Scindia,” Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedy told this newspaper.

Mr Chaturvedy regretted that Mr Scindia was not even invited for the occasion.

Chanderi, considered the birthplace of the famed “Chanderi sari designs”, falls under Guna Lok Sabha Lok Sabha constituency currently represented by Mr Scindia.

Mr Scindia’s followers in Ashok Nagar district declared to protest the scheduled inauguration of the handloom park by chief minister on Sunday “democratically”.

BJP national vice-president Prabhat Jha however dismissed the criticism of inauguration of the park by Mr Chouhan, saying that it was absolutely right for the chief minister to unveil any project in the state.

The Rs 30 crore-project envisaged a handloom park in 10 acres in Chanderi where 4,352 looms have been set up to benefit over 9,000 weavers.

A trade facilitation centre has been set up in the park to provide the weavers direct link to the market.