KL Report
JAMMU
The Jammu and Kashmir Government has taken up with the Government of India the issue of depiction of Pashmina Shawl and its passing through a finger ring in a television advertise by a prominent Cellular Company and demanded its stoppage.
Financial Commissioner, Industries and Commerce Department, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai in his communication to Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, today, has requested that the matter may be taken up with the concerned Advertisement Council and the particular Cellular Company to stop the telecast of this misleading advertisement.
In his letter, Ganai has clarified that a ring test is not at all a confirmatory test for certifying quality of a genuine Pashmina product. In fact, he said, it is learnt that shawls made out of synthetic fibre like ‘viscose’ can also easily pass through a finger ring, he wrote in the letter adding that the parameters under the G. I. (Geographical Indication) Act are the only testing parameters to check the genuiness of claimed pashmina.
Ganai in the letter has underlined the specifications for Kashmir Pashmina as regulated under G. I. which include, undergrowth of fleece from the mountain goat “Capra Hiracus” having a fineness of 12-16 Microns, made of delicate, fine woollen yarn that is spun out of this fleece by the hand spinning process, is hand woven using warp & weft yarns, is woven in 3 weaves, the twil weave, the Diamond weave and the Herringbone weave, have dyed/undyed yarn for weaving and is rendered/unrendered with fine hand embroidery in different proportions.
Ganai has stressed in the letter that no other method can prove the quality of pure Pashmina, be that even passing a shawl through a finger ring. He said all other forms which do not confirm to the quality manual under G. I. can be termed as spurious and, therefore, an infringement of the G. I. rights of the community registered as the proprietor in the G. I. Registry.
