The industries department is conducting surveys to develop a handicraft village, for which the Centre gives grants up to Rs 10 crore. The department had earlier proposed to develop Nayla near Jaipur as a craft village, but sources said the ACS, industries, preferred another village.
Nayla has already been taken up as one of the eight clusters for development of handicraft and tourism linkage. The department is now looking at villages like Kot Jewar in Bagru, known for blue ; Kaithun in Kota, where Kota Doria sarees are made; Molela in Rajsamand, famous for terracotta; Salawas in Jodhpur, where a large number of people are engaged in Dari making; and the weavers village of Thut in Jaisalmer.
While the industries department is looking to tap the Central scheme, it has already made a provision in its recently introduced handicraft policy for identifying regions where artisans live and work so that craft villages can be developed there.