Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday directed the industries and commerce department to take strong action against showrooms and retail outlets selling machine-made carpets under the label of handmade products.
A delegation from the Carpet Export Promotion Council, Indian Silk Export Promotion Council, Meeras Carpet Weavers’ Cooperative, Kashmir Carpet Cluster Development Organisation and Kashmir Carpet Manufacturers’ Association had met the CM at the civil secretariat here.
The delegation called for prohibiting the sale of machine-made carpets in all handicrafts-registered showrooms and stronger enforcement mechanisms, an official spokesperson said.
Abdullah took a serious note of counterfeit machine-made carpets passed off as authentic Kashmiri hand-knotted products, the spokesperson added. He said these fake products would damage the globally-renowned brand of Kashmiri handmade carpets and adversely affect the artisan families that depend on this craft for livelihood. The delegation also raised the issue of unscrupulous traders making use of a fake GI label on machine-made carpets.