Krishna Collector M. Raghunandan Rao on Sunday promised to sanction white ration card and widow pension to Perisetti Nagalaxmi of Kappaladoddi village at the earliest.
The move came after a story ‘They can weave sarees, not dreams’ was published in this column on August 3, highlighting the pleas of Ms. Nagalaxmi, a widow of P. Dattatreya (36), a weaver who committed suicide, due to financial crisis in April, 2013. The story also highlighted the issue that how ‘master’ weavers were exploiting the poor weavers by providing the latter conditional loans.
Responding to the report, Mr. Raghuandan Rao said that ration card and widow pension would be sanctioned to Nagalaxmi during the next drive on government welfare scheme.
“The name of Nagalaxmi has been included in the list of beneficiaries for the white ration card and widow pension as well,” Mr. Rao told The Hindu .
In 2013, based on the recommendations by a special panel headed by Machilipatnam RDO P. Saibaba, eligible weaver beneficiaries were given a package of Rs. 1.5 lakh by the government, including Rs. 50,000 meant for clearing the debt of the weavers’ families including Mr. Dattatreya, the Collector said.
