VIJAYAWADA: Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya said that the State government has sanctioned `3 crore to make Allagadda a sculpture hub. “Land will be allotted within 10 days and works will begin soon,” she added.
The minister said that a three-day workshop would be conducted by the Tourism Ministry by inviting national and international sculptors to Allagadda either in July-end or in August first week. She said that students from India and across the world would attend the workshop to learn the stone carving craft of Allagadda.
Akhila Priya said the government is taking steps to lend support to the Allagadda stone carvers. She informed that the Allagadda stone carvings have already got GI tag in April this year from GI Registry, Chennai.
“The reason why the stone carvers have not been doing good business is because of GST. However, I have written a letter to the GST Council to exempt Allagadda stone carvings from GST. Facilities have been provided to enable Allagadda stone carvers to export sculptures to Germany, the US and UK. The Tourism Department has also urged Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to include Allagadda stone carving in the construction of Amaravati,” she said.
Sculptors not happy
However, despite GI tag and facilities provided by the government, the sculptors from Allagadda say their situation has not improved. “The government has to pay dues worth `52 lakh to us for working on Bapu Museum in Vijayawada two years ago. Many young sculptors are not well-trained. When you are not properly trained, you cannot match the standards that people expect from a product with a GI tag. The government should conduct workshops and training programmes to hone the skills of sculptors,” said Hari Prasad, an Allagadda stone carver, who started a workshop that failed to take off two years ago.
He said that a group of sculptors asked for 3 per cent hike in payment. Though the government did provide a hike, the situation has not improved as other sculptors are doing work at a lesser wage. “If we have a union, we can fix wages. However, many sculptors do not have any idea about the union,” said D Balamurali, a sculptor, who belongs to a reputed stone carving family at Durugadda.
“We do not have proper facilities to export our sculptures. The government should arrange transport facilities so that our art gets noticed by wider audience,” said B Ramachari, another stone carver.