UP gets seven clusters under KVIC

The government of India has identified seven clusters in Uttar Pradesh to be looked under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). A total of 75 clusters were recognised across the country, out of which seven were sanctioned for UP.

KVIC Director (state office-Lucknow) RK Saha said, "We gave a list of 22 regions which have the capacity to be grown in khadi and village industries clusters, out of which the government cleared seven. These will be looked by the KVIC under its Scheme of Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI)."

The identified places are-Pratapgarh (amla-Indian Gooseberry), Kannauj (perfume), Benaras (khadi), Gorakhpur (khadi), Tikarmafi-Sultanpur) (blanket), Barabanki (pottery) and Kanpur (leather).

"It will be a common facility centre for skill upgrade and quality management. With about Rs 1 crore to be invested in each cluster, it is supposed to generate about 500 employments per cluster," added Saha.

The already running scheme in the state, called Rural Employment Generation Program (REGP), is expected to create 73, 000 additional jobs for the year 2006-07.

With about Rs 33 crore being pumped in the scheme for current fiscal, the scheme is run by the government of India through Office of the Commission for Khadi and Village Industries (OCKVI).

"UP is mainly agriculture dependent state. We have identified Jhansi division to set 200 vermi composing units," added Saha.