Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has come up with a raw material bank to provide required raw materials to the state's handicrafts artisans.

Odisha handloom, textile and handicrafts minister Snehangini Chhuria said that the raw material bank had been set up through the Odisha State Co-Operative Handicrafts Corporation (popularly known as Utkalika) to provide raw materials to appliqué, brass metal and stone carving artisans.

Apart from that, provisions have also been made to supply raw materials to wood carving crafts through government-run timber depots.

The handicraft artisans have been facing scarcity of raw materials for long and they have been drawing the attention of the state government to the problem from time to time.

A delegation of artisans had even met chief minister Naveen Patnaik in the past to draw his attention to raw material scarcity.

"Odisha's appliqué works, patta chitra painting, silver filigree, wood and stone carving and tribal jewelleries are popular across the globe. However, scarcity of raw materials has emerged as the major bottlerneck for the artisans," said general secretary of Odisha Shilpi Mahasangh Priya Ranjan Kar.

"The state government has introduced several schemes to address the problem of raw material scarcity and also to provide marketing support to ensure that artisans do not face difficulty," said Chhuria.

To attract buyers from abroad, the state government has entered into tie-ups with online sales platforms such as e-bay and snapdeal, she said.

To provide marketing support to the artisans, the state government has set up urban haats and branches of Utkalika. Besides, the government is organising exhibitions and encouraging the participation of artisans in the demonstration and sale of products, said the minister.

She claimed that the government is also providing assistance for self employment, capacity building, credit support and marketing linkages through the Shilpi Gram scheme.