Paying a rich tribute to the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Assam Government on Monday said that it would revive the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and added that the Government would gift a Khadi dress to each of the Government employees in the State.
Assam Health, Education and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said this Monday while adding that the Government has also plans to distribute Khadi school uniform in all the schools, provided the KVIC can take up the supply order.
“We have decided to gift a Khadi dress — a shirt to the men and Salwar to women employees of the Assam Government before next Rongali Bihu. We’ll give token to them and they can buy it from any of the KVIC stores. This will help reviving the dying KVIC,” said the Minister.
The Minister, however, said that there would not be any hard and fast rule that the employees has to wear the Khadi. “The Khadi is becoming popular and it looks so good, I think the employees would wear the dress on their own and we are not going to force anyone,” Sarma said.
“We are also ready to engage the KVIC in supplying school uniforms. However, if they can complete the first assignment, we can think of asking them to supply the school uniforms,” he said adding that the government has earmarked an amount of Rs 25 crore in the budget for revival of the KVIC.
“The KVIC in Assam has sold national flags worth Rs 16 lakh in the recent past. The effort is on to revive the KVIC and we are going to everything required to revive it,” he said.
It may be mentioned here that the Assam has about four lakhs of Government employee and according to the Minister it is going to cosr around Rs 12 crore to the state exchequer to gift the employees a Khadi dress.