The Central Government will clear proposal for setting up of an apparel park in Warangal as soon as it is received from the State Government, said Additional Secretary of Ministry of Textiles Pushpa Subrahmaniam.
“We are waiting for proposals from the Telangana Government. We will clear it as soon as it comes,” Ms. Subrahmaniam said talking to The Hindu when she was here on Monday in connection with promotion of the mega event, Textiles India 2017, slated to start at Gandhinagar in Gujarat from June 30.
She said the Ministry had conducted diagnostic studies of the problems facing powerloom weavers of Sircilla. Weavers from this area are suffering on account of technology, credit and high cost power, she said. She expressed concern that weavers in Sircilla opt for polyester and not cotton textiles.
“They are going for polyester in the cotton rich area. They will get much better returns if they switch over to cotton,” she said.
Another issue of concern was the use of outdated technology which involves high costs of power.
Upgradation of technology is one major step to survive and sustain in the competitive market, she said.
The government had therefore announced 50% subsidy on deployment of latest technology for general category weavers and the subsidy was around 90% to those from the SC/ST categories.
In addition, the Ministry is providing huge subsidy on procurement of solar panels to operate their looms on solar energy, she said.
“They have to survive competition. This will ensure that their products are price competitive and the costs incurred on power are less,” she said. Responding to a query on marketing facilities for manufactured products, Ms. Pushpa Subrahmaniam said marketing of the products would not be a problem if weavers can handle the quality of the product and make price competitive.
