Coalition had okayed 200 flats for VIPs on silk industry land

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 12

In a major setback to Kashmir’s age-old silk industry, the previous PDP-BJP government had approved the construction of nearly 200 VIP apartments on 92-kanal sericulture land in Srinagar.

The decision, which was taken by former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, is likely to push for the closure of the silk industry even as the state administration led by Governor NN Vohra has shown keen interest in the revival of industrial units with historic importance for Kashmir.

“Sanction is hereby accorded to the transfer of the state land measuring 92 kanals under the possession of the sericulture department situated in Srinagar district to the estates department for the construction of residential flats for VIPs, MLAs and government employees,” reads a Cabinet order of April 2018 kept under wraps by the officials to date.

Officials said the estates department was considering building more than 200 houses for former ministers, MLAs and officers on the sericulture land in the Solina-Barzulla, Batamaloo and Lachmanpora localities of Srinagar. Lakhs of mulberry plants are grown in these nurseries before being sent to rural areas for further growth and production of silk.

Kashmir has been historically famous for producing best quality silk. Official data reveals that nearly 3.5 lakh people were associated with the silk industry while the sericulture farming has spread from 2,450 to 2,838 villages in this decade.

The decision to transfer the land for construction purposes has not gone down well with the people associated with the sericulture business. “It is an announcement of the closure of silk trade in Kashmir,” said Mushtaq Ali, a trader.

Kashmir filature, which used to produce raw silk, reeled its last silk yarns in 1988. After three decades, the Vohra-led administration on July 24 reopened the Kashmir filature at Solina, Rambagh, installed by Sir Thomas Wardle, president of the Silk Association of Great Britain in 1897.