Guwahati: The Nikhil Assam Swarna Silpi Samiti (NASSS), an organisation representing small and medium jewellery artisans in the state, is up in arms against a Centre's bill that has made hallmarking of gold and silver ornaments mandatory without necessary infrastructure in place.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is mandated by the Centre to ensure that all gold and silver ornaments are hallmarked with BIS mark, the fineness number (corresponding to given caratage like 22K), assaying and hallmarking centre's mark and jeweller's identification mark.

While maintaining that the organisation is not against hallmarking of jewellery per se, its office-bearers said that the devil was in the details. It sniffed a conspiracy to destroy the makers of small ornaments at the behest of big corporate houses.

The Samiti's organisational secretary Prasanta Roy said: "Before making hallmarking compulsory, the infrastructure should be developed. There are only two private sector hallmarking centres in Guwahati and Silchar to cater to around 2.5 lakh artisans in about 38,000 jewellery shops in 33 districts of the state. It is impossible for one to travel 400km to 500km to have his products hallmarked. At least five hallmark centres should be set up to serve at least three districts each."

"Moreover, according to BIS norms, each consignment for hallmarking has to have a minimum of six pieces of jewellery weighing at least 10gm; otherwise the hallmark centre refuses to do the hallmarking. Small artisans take orders of one or two ornaments at a time. So this rule is tough to comply with. This is a conspiracy to destroy the small jewellery makers who consider their trade as a family tradition. If the norms are not changed, we will contemplate legal action," he said.

Roy also asked for relaxation in BIS registration fees for small jewellers.

The general secretary of NASSS, Joynal Abedin Mandal, urged the Centre and the BIS to relax the norms and provide subsidy for setting up more hallmarking centres. He expressed resentment against a rule for jewellers to compensate for defective quality, saying the BIS should be held responsible once hallmarking is done.