The annual distribution of free sarees for poor women for the Bathukamma festival beginning on Tuesday commenced across the State on Saturday. Ministers and MLAs participated in the distribution in their respective constituencies.
The government targeted production of 1.08 lakh sarees this year, eight lakh more than last year, with a total cost of ₹ 333 crore. Already 93 lakh sarees had left the production units for storage in godowns and distribution in districts, according to the Assistant Director of Handlooms and Textiles at Sircilla, Mettakola Sagar.
Out of 6.87 crore meters of cloth required for the sarees, only ten lakh meters was ordered from powerlooms in Warangal and twenty lakh meters in Garshakurthi in Karimnagar. The entire remaining cloth was produced at the powerlooms in Sircilla.
The sarees were produced in 24 basic designs and 34 colours, but with minor changes in patterns, the number of designs would go up to 810 against 225 last year, Mr. Sagar said. This was made possible because the government insisted with the loom owners to install Jacquard and Dobby technology on the machines.
The technology yielded intricate and colourful designs on the fabric.
The cost of each saree worked out to ₹ 320. While 98 lakh sarees were of 6.30 meters of length, the remaining 10 lakh sarees were specially made for women who wore a length of nine meters due to their customs.
About 15,000 looms operated by as many workers of 136 small scale industrial units and 138 mutually aided cooperative societies worked on the sarees for the past six months.
The sarees will be distributed to all women above the age of 18 years.
