Stating that the 31% hike in power charges is affecting them, members of Tamil Nadu Federation of Powerlooms Associations urged the State government to increase the wages by 25% for producing free dhotis and saris meant for distribution to ration card holders during the Pongal festival.
In a letter to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, federation coordinator T.S.A. Subramanian said the State government had issued orders for producing free dhotis and saris to 228 power loom weavers’ cooperative societies and the production was in progress at 65,000 power looms in the State.
Orders were issued in August this year for producing one crore saris and 1.20 crore dhotis and the production of dhotis began in the second week of October and that of saris in the first week of November.
As many as 80% of the total production was carried out in Erode and Tiruchengode region providing jobs to over two lakh people. At present, 750 units of free electricity was provided to power looms and the DMK in its election manifesto had promised to increase it to 1,000 units after coming to power. But the State government had hiked the power charges by 31% from September, the letter said and added that a power loom unit owner with 20 power looms had to pay additional power charges of ₹800 to ₹1,000 bi-monthly now.
The letter said that due to steep hike in power charges, the price of spare parts, charges at lathe workshops and other related charges for maintaining power looms had gone up by 30% now. Increase in fuel price, skyrocketing price of essential commodities and hike in labour cost were affecting the power loom unit owners. “All these factors have contributed to the increase in production cost of free saris and dhotis,” the letter said.
The federation the State government had, in 2019, revised the wages for producing dhotis and saris, ₹24 and ₹43 respectively and the wages were not hiked in the last three years. “Production of dhotis and saris will benefit owners and workers only if the wages are hiked by 25%,” the letter said.
