ICICI Lombard gives health cards to 55 UP weavers

The ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, in collaboration with the Centre, last week distributed the "Hathkargha Bunkar Swasthya Bima Card" to about 55 weavers of Uttar Pradesh.

The health insurance scheme, launched about 10 months ago, has covered about 27,107 weaving families from Uttar Pradesh and approximately 300,000 weavers in the country.

The annual limit per family is Rs 15,000, of which the provision for out-patients department (OPD) expenses is Rs 7,500. The annual premium is of Rs 1,000 per weaver, of which Rs 800 will be contributed by the government and Rs 200 by the weaver.

"Besides this, the Centre has identified 15 sick handloom mills in the country for revival. We can include at least two sick mills of Kanpur if the National Textile Corporation (NTC) and the British India Corporation (BIC) agree on a joint restructuring project for the revival," said Union Textile Minister Shanker Singh Vaghela.

In Uttar Pradesh, four clusters, one each at Barabanki, Mubarakpur, Varanasi and Bijnor, have been sanctioned Rs 2 crore each. Moreover, about ten more clusters may be identified in the state soon.

A total of 237 yarn depots, covering all handloom clusters having more than 1, 000 looms, will be operative this year.

"Out of these 237 depots, 37 have been identified in Uttar Pradesh. These depots will help in stabilising the fluctuating prices and the weavers will be able to access raw materials easily at reasonable rates," Waghela said.