Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 06 2010:
Highlighting that small scale industries in Manipur had been on the wane for the last many years inspite of huge demand from the local consumers, Kanglei kolu Sinpham Kanba Lup, Malom Tulihal has called upon the Government to ensure indigenous products are not copied and imported to Manipur.
speaking to news-persons at manipur press Club today, Lup general secretary Kangjam Chittaranjan Singh said nearly 10,000 artisans are involved in small scale industrial works such as manufacture of coated items, mostly ornamental goods.
apart from direct involvement of many skilled and unskilled labour in the sector, over 50,000 persons are also depending in the production and marketing of ornamental items including neck-chain, ring, earring etc, he pointed out.
Listing Malom Tulihal, Yairipok, Utlou, nambol Phoijing, Thambalkhong and Thoubal are some of the pockets from where such items used to be produced, Chittaranjan expressed concern that these days wealthy businessmen copies local product and after large scale manufacture at bigger cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata etc are put on sale here in the state.
Stating that such practices not only violates copy rights of local products, he said large scale import of these items are having negative implication on the local labourers with several persons enduring economic distress.
Drawing attention of both the state Government and civil society organisations to look into the matter, Chittaranjan desired that copy rights be protected at all cost so as to ensure survival of many small scale industries.