About 2,000 powerloom weavers in Surat have devised a new way of doing business. Fabric merchants and traders, they say, will have to furnish valid references of prominent traders from the market to purchase unfinished fabrics from the weavers. Besides, the weavers will collect profiles of traders from rented premises in the textile market. These traders too will have to furnish references of shop owners and to other traders who have shops in the same market. In fact, Surta’s Sachin GIDC and Hojiwala Estate, two powerloom weavers together decided to stay away from doing business with merchants who do not provide valid references of traders from respective markets in the city. A committee of Sachin Weavers' Welfare Association (SWWA) will now make the final verification of the details submitted by the traders and cross-verify it.

These practices were adopted by Sachin weavers after over 136 weavers from Sachin GIDC and Hojiwala Estate were cheated by a gang of fly-by-night operators in the textile markets for over Rs 4.5 crore recently. Mahendra Ramoliya, SWWA president stated that the weavers were an easy bait for fly-by-night operators and it was high time this menace was checked with some strict measures in place.