Purnea, Nov. 9: Sarvodaya Ashram at Ranipatra village in the district is on the verge of closure and almost all its employees have migrated to various parts of the country in search of employment.

At present, the ashram is left with only 20 permanent employees, down from nearly 600 workers who used to serve the organisation as spinners, weavers and maintenance workers either on a temporary or permanent basis till 2009.

According to sources, the 20 employees who are still with the ashram are not getting their salary on time and fear to lose their job any moment.

Till 2008, the ashram was into making threads, cotton cloth, sattu, incense sticks, soap and honey and its annual business stood at Rs 50 lakh.

Baidyanath Mehta, the chair-person of the ashram, claimed that the organisation was bleeding because of non-availability of funds from Khadi Village Industry Commission (KVIC) for two years.

“From day one, the ashram used to operate with KVIC’s financial assistance. But funds stopped reaching us since 2009,” he told The Telegraph.

The Ranipatra ashram is being run by a 21-member ma-nagement committee led by Mehta as its chairperson.

“Since the ashram was set up, it has been receiving assistance from KVIC. But the situation changed since 2009 and now it is one the verge of a closure,” added Mehta.

The Sarvodaya Ashram of Ranipatra was set up in 1952 and it got registered under Societies Act in 1955. Very next year, it took over the work of the KVIC. Since then, it used to get financial support from KVIC till 2008.

Mehta alleged that the commission had withdrawn its financial support all of a sudden, pushing the ashram on the verge of closure.

Under the aegis of KVIC, the ashram has been running various projects to ensure economic stability for the villagers and promote khadi products according to the vision of Mahatma Gandhi.

Social activists such as Vinoba Bhave and Jaiprakash Narayan had set up Sarvodaya ashrams across the country after Independence.