Akshay Azad
Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 12: Meager publicity given to the Jammu and Kashmir National Handloom Expo-2015, "Dast-E-Hunar", organized by Directorate of Handloom at Dushehra ground Gandhi Nagar, has left nearly one hundred weavers in despair, who have come from various parts of the state to sell their merchandize, as little publicity efforts by the department could have given far better dividends.
Surprisingly, the directions given by of Financial Commissioner, Khursheed Ahmed Ganai, during his speech at inaugural function, which was held on third day of fifteen day event also fell reportedly on the deaf ears of department, which failed to give required publicity to Expo-2015.
While addressing the gathering on February 11, Khursheed Ahmed Ganai had asked the officers of Handloom department to give wider publicity to the Expo so that more and more people would turn up in Gandhi Nagar Dushera ground. He had unequivocally asked the officers to give advertisements of the Expo in the newspapers either in Urdu or Hindi.
"The readers of English dailies usually visit showrooms of branded companies and will not be interested in the Expo of our weavers but the rural population is the main customers for the products available in the Expo, so give advertisements to Urdu and Hindi dailies, which have wide coverage in rural area", Khursheed Ahmed Ganai had said, and asserted that there was no need to give advertisements in English dailies.
But to utter surprise of Financial Commissioner, a sole advertisement appeared in a single newspaper but that too a in an English daily rather than Hindi or Urdu.
"The poor display of the advertisement meant for publicity of Dast-E-Hunar speaks about the seriousness of department towards the gullible weaver community", an employee of department said.
Castigating the department, a weaver said that Gandhi Nagar is a posh locality and only few customers have been visiting here, only due to lethargic efforts of department. "This is national export Mela but there is no publicity. If there was some publicity of our Expo, huge crowd would have turned up in Expo", he said.
Another weaver of Kashmir criticized the department for shoddy arrangements. "Even serial numbers are not displayed properly on the makeshift shops. A customer will not easily find the shop without proper serial numbers, if he/she will visit the second time", he said.
Another weaver said that a mobile toilet van has been parked behind the makeshift shops. "The toilets in the van are so filthy and unhygienic that it is impossible to go there for answering Nature's call. Many of the weavers have been visiting Gole Market Sulabh complex for toilet", he said and rued that at least the department would have properly got the toilets cleaned.
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