Industries Minister Jupally Krishna Rao holds review meeting with weavers associations Hyderabad: Telangana Industries Minister Jupally...
Industries Minister Jupally Krishna Rao holds review meeting with weavers associations
Hyderabad: Telangana Industries Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Monday said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government was planning to empower weavers’ community in the State to attain self sufficiency in a couple of years. During a meeting of weavers associations and workers at Haritha Plaza along with IT Minister K T Rama Rao, Jupally stressed the need for providing timely help and financial assistance to the weavers and workers in handloom sector.
For this, the government is planning to offer requisite training to handloom workers and weavers to polish their professional skills. A plan to offer them training was on cards to ensure that the products were sold online, Krsihna Rao stated. “Indeed we will promote the handloom industry to become self-sufficient in two years,” he said. Meanwhile, the Congress party took credit for the State government’s decision to conduct a review meeting on textiles and weavers in the city on Monday.
File photo of a handloom weaver in Sircilla
The party pointed out that it was the TPCC’s initiative to constitute a committee on February 3 to identify the problems of the handloom workers in the State, headed by former Textiles Minister G Prasad Kumar, whose members included D Sridhar Babu and Ponnam Prabhakar, both former ministers, which forced the government to review the weavers’ problems.
Speaking to media persons, former Textiles Minister G Prasad Kumar said the Congress government had earmarked Rs 130 crore for weavers in the budget. Besides this, establishment of a separate bank and distribution of loans to the tune of Rs 35,000 each for handloom weavers without surety was announced.
He lamented that the new government which came to power with the promise of solving the problems of weavers, had completely been neglected. “Not a single meeting was held during the last nine months. Even though the Textile Minister represents Sircilla,” said the former minister. He pointed out that the government was charging Rs 8 per unit for power as compared to other States like Gujarat and Maharashtra which charge only Rs 2 per unit.
