The TRS government is committed to the welfare of handloom and powerloom weavers and has taken several measures for the revival of the handloom sector and welfare of weavers, said IT, Industry and Handlooms Minister K.T. Rama Rao here on Tuesday.
“Ours is an action-based government,” he said replying to the short discussion on ‘Waiver of Loans and Assistance to Handloom Sector’ in the Legislative Council. He said at the time of Telangana formation, there was no clarity on the number of handlooms and powerlooms in the State. The erstwhile governments in united Andhra Pradesh had no proper understanding about the plight of weavers and as a result several weavers from Telangana region migrated to Sholapur, Bhiwandi, Mumbai, Surat in search of work. Mr. Rao said not many leaders had clarity either about woes of handloom and powerloom weavers and both were in distress with no market for their produce and resorted to suicides.
After formation of Telangana, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s directive was to help both handloom and powerloom workers.
The TRS government implemented ₹ 59 crore loan waiver for weavers covering from 2010 onwards, announced incentives, provided training and marketing facilities and had been promoting handloom textiles in a big way. Film actor Samantha had offered to serve as brand ambassador without taking any remuneration, he said.
The Minister said that ₹1,200 crore were allotted for handloom and powerloom sector in the budget and geo-tagging of the looms had been done. There were 17,523 handloom and 35,000 powerlooms in the State
Mr. Rama Rao said that there was need to scale up production of textiles and two separate development corporations were set up for handloom and powerloom to develop both the sectors. Powerlooms were being modernised to improve production quality and efforts were on to ensure that handloom and powerloom workers earn minimum ₹15,000 wages a month.
There was no help from the Centre to the government’s initiatives like Mega Textile Park at Warangal to cover all activities from Farm to Fashion and help migrated weavers return home, he said. The State was coordinating with NIFT to introduce new design elements, entered into agreement with Amazon to expand market for handlooms, set up showrooms in all 31 districts, apparel park and common facility centre in Sircilla, he said.
To promote handlooms, the government made a policy to buy all the woven cloth left after the procurement by the private sector for use by government schools, hospitals. RTC and Singareni Collieries managements would also procure handloom cloth for their staff soon. Orders for about one crore Bathukamma saris would be given to Sircilla weavers this time, he said.
