Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to shut down the loss-making showrooms of UP handlooms and UP Industrial Cooperative Association Ltd (UPICA)

UP minister for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) Satyadev Pachauri said in a statement that the decision in this regard had been taken in principle since this would make the two corporations financially viable.

The minister said that while UPICA has been running in profit for the past two years only and recording a net gain of Rs 3 crore in 2017-18, UP Handlooms recorded a profit only last year but that too, was just Rs 80 lakh.

The minister, however, made it clear that the government would not retrench any staff. “There are about 150 UP handloom employees and about 82 employees of UPICA  but they will not be rendered jobless.

Mr Pachauri said that there are 46 showrooms of UPICA and 72 of UP Handloom. Out of these, UPICA’s five loss-making showrooms in Indore, Jaipur, Jabalpur and Mumbai are set to be shut down. Among UP Handloom showrooms, 29 are running in rented premises and all will be shut down.

“We carried out a survey and found that several showrooms of these two corporations have either been making losses for years or have not been functional at all. Many of these premises are on rent and located outside of the state”, he said.