Andhra Pradesh: Weavers hope that the Chief Minister will solve their problems

Chirala: The weaver community in the State is eagerly waiting for Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to attend the National Handloom Day celebrations at Chirala on Wednesday and announce relief and schemes for their welfare. The Handloom and Textiles Department estimates that there are about 3.50 lakh handloom weavers in the State and about 50 per cent of them come under 1,282 weavers’ cooperative societies. The previous government used to give financial assistance of Rs 24,000 per year to about 86,000 weavers under the YSR Nethanna Nestham programme. But about one lakh weavers who did not own a handloom were deprived of the scheme. The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated the handloom sector in the State. The wages of weavers fell by about 50 per cent due to the collapse of the market for handloom products and increased supply from other places. This phenomenon severely affected the weavers and forced the younger generation to leave the profession. The situation also affected more than one lakh workers, who are dependent on allied works of handloom. Meanwhile, 5 per cent GST on yarn and taxes on dyes and chemicals increased the final price of handloom fabrics, negatively impacting the market. Bandaru Jwala Narasimhan, president of All India Handloom Rights Forum, pointed out that the Nethanna Nestham programme saved the poor families of weavers to a great extent during the time of crisis. He requested the Chief Minister to continue the programme during his tenure and extend it to those weavers who cannot afford handlooms but weave in shared work sheds. He demanded the government to provide 4 cents of land to weavers who have handlooms to build house-cum-work sheds from a budget of Rs 5 lakh and to provide subsidy on electricity up to 300 units. Narasimhan demanded the government to rename Bapatla district as Pragada Kotaiah district after the great leader who strived for the welfare of handloom weavers. The weavers’ leaders asked the chief minister to issue orders to buy stocks from private master weavers and convince the central government to remove 5 per cent GST on yarn and tax on dyes and chemicals which is 32 per cent. They demanded the government to sanction a loan of Rs 5 lakh on self-guarantee under the Mudra scheme. They requested the government to cancel fake cooperative societies and investigate allegations of corruption in APCO.