The 60th annual ‘Khadi Utsav’ organised by the Karnataka state Khadi and Village Industries Commission, was inaugurated on April 24 at Freedom Park.

The month-long exhibition has more than 100 stalls, selling handwoven shirts, sarees, towels, bedsheets and other clothing. Societies and associations from rural parts of Karnataka and neighbouring states who are in the business of producing these textiles are participating in the exhibition.

After inaugurating the exhibition, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “If we want demand for our khadi products, they should be of good quality and we need to upgrade our technology.”

“In the previous budget, we allocated Rs 3 crore for each district to develop a Khadi Bhavan but it has not been utilised. I have written to district commissioners to identify space in their district and begin work soon,” Siddaramaiah said.

Freedom fighter H S Doreswamy, senior journalist Patil Puttappa, employee of the commission H P Surbhi, spinner Jeejamma and weaver Putmadamma, were felicitated at the function.

The annual exhibition is usually held in January. “The demand for khadi garments is not much but we manage because of help from the state and Union governments. We usually generate good sales at the exhibition but this time we are not sure if the change in exhibition dates will affect the sales,” said Nagarajappa of the Chitradurga Sarvodaya Khadi Gramodyoga Sangha.

Besides plain khadi clothes, the exhibition has stalls selling cotton and khadi clothes hand painted in the Kalamkari style.

Chitti Babu, an artisan from Andhra Pradesh, uses a 17-step method to create the sarees using vegetable dyes and milk. The elaborate, labour-intensive process makes the material expensive. “It takes me 30 days to make one saree while machines can print 30 sarees in one day. But people are not aware of the process and the value of this artwork so they only see the price,” he said. The exhibition will be open for public till May 23, at Freedom Park.

Source: deccanherald