Siwan, Dec. 31: Once famous across India, Rajendra Khadi Gramodyog Sangh at Siwan today is a spectre of its glorious past. Named after the first president of India Rajendra Prasad and established in 1973, the Sangh has been gasping for survival for the past several years.

The proud culture of khadi lies in shambles thanks to the apathetic attitude of both the state and the central governments. To add to that, there has been large-scale misappropriation of funds, with no auditing in the past six years. The Sangh’s land has been encroached by retired persons, and other people.

Khes chadar (bed sheet) and gamcha (towel) were two of the most popular products of the Sangh. They had loyal clientele across the country.

But that’s past. The production has come to a grinding halt at the Sangh. No steps have been taken to revive the traditional khadi production centre.

Ashok Pandey, a lecturer of ZA Islamia College, told The Telegraph: “The decay of the Sangh started during the 1990s and continued till 2005. From 2006 things started changing a little,” he said.

Till 1990, the Sangh worked with great efficiency. It had 175 employees and a thousand charkhas (weaving wheel). One thousand weavers used to sustain their families working at the Sangh. It did a business worth crores. It had its own printing press, boiler, godown, shops, vehicles and land of four bighas on which the office building and the houses of employees stand.

The Sangh is rich in the sense that it has land at different places in the district. It has seven kathas of land in Darauli block, 21 kathas in Mairwa block, seven in Balia, four in Sivapur sacra and two kathas in Thepha. But retired employees have encroached upon most of them. They haven’t spared the building of the Sangh either.

The state government owes Rs 56 lakh to the Sangh while the central government owes Rs 6 lakh to the organisation. The place has reportedly seen a lot of plundering of its resources in past six years.

Newly appointed administrator of the Sangh Muhammad Sarfuddin told The Telegraph that efforts were on to revive the glorious past of Khadi Sangh.

He said: “At present, the organisation is working under Muzaffarpur Khadi Gramodyog Sangh. Efforts are on to get the money back from the state government. Even the Khadi Commission is keen to revive this body.”

Sarfuddin pointed out that there was a time when stationmasters used to leave their jobs to join the Khadi Gramodyog Sangh. “Efforts are also being made to free the encroached land and the building of the Sangh from the encroachers,” he added.