Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated an exhibition in Varanasi meant to showcase cultural arts and handicrafts named ‘Kashi Ek Roop Anek’ and said that his government was working to provide an environment that gave freedom from paperwork to ordinary citizens and small traders.
The Prime Minister, who was speaking at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Hastkala Sankul during his day-long trip to his constituency on Sunday, also said the country was working on its first National Logistics policy to further strengthen small-scale industries.
“The effort today is to free common citizens and businessmen from the burden of paperwork. Official processes should be solution-centric and not create problems. Work is being done to achieve this,” the PM said.
10,000 Uttar Pradesh artisans are participating in ‘Kashi Ek Roop Anek’ exhibition.
Prime Minister took keen interest in the products displayed at the event and personally interacted with buyers and artisans from different countries, including the US, England and Australia.
Artists and weavers at the two-day programme will learn skills for improving the quality and branding of their products and will be guided on pitching their product to the national and international markets.
23 lakh artisans and weavers reside in Uttar Pradesh including 35,800 artisans and 1.5 lakh weavers, who stay in Varanasi.
“Uttar Pradesh Institute of Design has helped over 3500 artisans from 30 districts in the last two years and over a thousand craftsmen have been provided with toolkits to help improve their work,” the PM said highlighting steps taken for the small-scale industries sector.
He said their contribution was needed to make India a global manufacturing powerhouse.
The prime minister said the government respected wealth creators and had come up with the concept of Taxpayers charter to end their harassment.
“Taxpayers charter is being made in an initiative which reflects a thought not seen in many countries,’ Modi said.