1100 KSIC employees of all three units stop production

Mysore silk lovers may not get sarees soon until KSIC filature land issue in T Narsipur is resolved by CM.

Mysuru: Geographical Indication tag Mysore silk saree lovers who queued up with tokens near 13 showrooms of KSIC at 5.30am every day, may not get these heritage sarees soon, as 1092 employees of all three KSIC units are on protest and have stopped production.

192 employees of T Narsipur raw silk yarn reeling unit stopped production of raw silk yarn from Saturday. Now 900 employees of silk weaving units including 700 in Mysuru and 200 in Channapatna stopped weaving sarees from Wednesday. They are all protesting near T Narsipura KSIC filature. KSIC MD Zehera Naseem and Sericulture Department Secretary R Girish visited them and tried to convice them to resume production. But employees have decided to continue the protest until the issue is resolved by Chief Minister.

KSIC MD Zehera Naseem, said, "We have a stock of 2500 Mysore silk sarees. As many as atleast 1500 sarees are sold per day in KSIC showrooms including five in Mysuru, six in Bengaluru, one each in Channapatna and Hyderabad. If they continue the protest, we will be exhausted with the stock in the next two days and the sarees won't be available for people."

"We have brought the issue to the notice of Sericulture minister K Venkatesh. Minister and Secretary Girish are in the process of discussing with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah regarding the issue and about retaining the land of T Narsipur unit and to save KSIC units," Zehera said.

The employees of all three units are protesting, fearing the closure of Karnataka Silk Industries Corporation (KSIC) mother unit at T Narsipur of Mysuru district, as its five acre land is taken over by the Department of youth empowerment and sports for construction of the stadium. They are protesting near the units, to retain the land of KSIC filature at T Narsipur and the filature, and heritage GI tag Mysore silk sarees, according to KSIC employees association members.

KSIC unit at T Narsipur processes 1,500 to 2,000 kg of cocoons to 250 to 300 kg silk yarn per day. 319 looms including 229 looms in Mysuru and 50 looms in Channapatna weave 2,200 meters of Mysore Silk per day and the final end product of about 400 Mysore silk sarees happens in Mysuru unit. Since they had a buffer stock of silk yarn for a month, employees at Mysuru and Channapatna weaved Sarees from Saturday. Now fearing the loss of livelihood with closure of the mother unit, the employees of KSIC units at Channapatna and Mysuru have also stopped weaving, according to officials.

According to employees association members, they fear that, KSIC unit in T Narsipura will be closed as the stadium cannot exist next to 5tph (tonne per hour) and 2tph boilers or dump yard of cinder ash generated by burning coal; there won't be a way to transport 5 tonne per day of coal. The pipeline from the river passes through this buffer of 5 acre land. So, when there is no raw material, Mysore Silk sarees cannot be weaved. So, the employees will lose jobs and it will be the end of the era ofMysore silk sarees.

Meanwhile members of Parisarakkaagi Naavu led by State President A T Ramaswamy, rushed to T Narsipur and extended support to protesting employees. Parashuramegowda, Gayathri and others from Mysuru joined him.