3 lakh taka of debt, and 112,500 looms shut across the district

A cash crunch is shutting loom after loom in Belkuchi and the neighbouring upazilas of Sirajganj. A weaver in Mokimpur village is left with 3 lakh taka of debt and says he cannot keep the business going unless conditions change. One man in Tamai village has decided to close his factory outright, and another in Gopalpur cannot recover payment for sarees he sent to India, so what stopped the looms was money not coming back, not a lack of demand for cloth. A feeder with eight years at a loom factory was laid off without being paid his final wages. The paper counts 112,500 looms shut and about 225,000 workers out of work, in a district sector employing roughly 300,000 people with more than 150,000 engine and hand looms across seven upazilas.