The State government would place orders for producing fabric — for school uniforms under the Rajiv Vidya Mission and the Bathukamma sarees and other materials — only if the powerloom weavers upgrade their looms to produce value-added fabric, Minister for IT, Municipal Administration and Textiles K. Taraka Rama Rao said.
Addressing weavers after inaugurating a two-day mela on “in situ upgradation of plain powerlooms” at the textile town on Friday, he said: “The government is committed to upgrade the existing plain powerlooms with modern gadgets at a cost of ₹30 crore to help them produce quality fabric and increase the production. The onus is on the weaver to upgrade them as it is being offered at no cost to the weaver.”
Further, the government would provide training to the powerloom weavers on the new machinery. The government had taken up geo-tagging of all the powerlooms in the state to ensure transparency, he said there were more than 30,000 powerlooms in Sircilla town out of a total of 50,000 powerlooms in the state. He said that they had decided to upgrade a total of 15,000 powerlooms in Sircilla during this year.
Mr. Rama Rao said that the state government had decided to pay premium of ₹80 per annum for group insurance scheme of weavers so that the weavers families would get ₹4 lakh for accident death, ₹2 lakh for natural death, ₹2 lakh for permanent disability and ₹1 lakh for partial disability.
He also called upon the weavers to get enrolled in the ‘Nethannaku Cheyutha’ thrift group by contributing a minium amount of ₹8 per month and an equal amount would be contributed by the government to provide social security to weavers. He also said that they had decided to set up to common services centre separately at Textile Park and Sircilla town for the benefit of weavers. Telangana State Cooperative Apex Bank (TSCAB) chairman K. Ravinder Rao, Handlooms and Textiles Commissioner Shailaja Ramaiyer, Collector Krishna Bhaskar and others were present.
