Hope for Ganjam migrants to be back home

Berhampur: Sisir Gouda of Balakrushnapur in Ganjam district has weaved a hope for the migrant workers who are eager to return to Ganjam from Surat thus putting a break on the exodus of workers from the district. An estimated eight lakh Odia migrants are working in Surat's textile mills,

Sisir, who worked in the textile mills at Surat and Mumbai for 32 years, established 'Matexmate Textile Private Limited' at Balakrushnapur and employed 14 of his colleagues from Surat textile mills and two raw hands from his village.

Sisir pays Rs 30,000 to the experienced employees and Rs 10,000 to the inexperienced staffers. More and more textile workers from Surat are now showing interest in working in this textile mill.

Sisir and two of his partners, Govind Chandra Ghadei and Raghunath Ghadei (both from Abhayapur village in Jarada Patrapur), laid the foundation of the textile mill on 3,000 square feet land in 2020. The production started six months ago. "We have spent Rs 2 crore till now on our own initiative and installed nine weaving machines," said Sisir.

"We are now procuring raw materials from Surat, Mumbai, Chennai and other places and producing 1,600 to 1,800 metres of cloth per day and supplying the product to Mumbai," he said.

Sisir, who was working as Weaving and Designing Manager in a textile mill at Surat prior to opening the textile mill in Ganjam, was getting a monthly salary of Rs 70,000. He sold some of his landed property and borrowed loan to set up the mill here. "The textile mill in Ganjam presently deals with weaving and we would make profit only after two years," Sisir said.

"I am interested in helping the migrant workers who are eager to return to Ganjam from Surat. I have now installed nine machines in Balakrushnapur mill. But it can be increased to 50 machines to accommodate more than 200 textile workers. I have the experience to deal with 118 such machines. But finance is the main constraint. If the State government helps us financially to establish more weaving machines, we can accommodate more migrant workers who are eager to return to Ganjam from Surat," said Sisir.