Chirala: CM Jagan urged to announce special package for handloom workers

Chirala: All India Handloom Rights Forum president Bandaru Jwala Narasimham has requested Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to announce a special package to save the handloom workers, who are in a disastrous condition after the Covid-19 pandemic hit them.

In a letter, Jwala Narasimham thanked the Chief Minister for providing a benefit of Rs 24, 000 per year to the handloom weavers through the direct benefit transfer system, under YSR Nethanna Nestam programme. He explained that the handloom workers are facing many ordeals due to the Covid pandemic and are unable to recover from the crisis.

He explained that the shed workers and allied workers are also poor and living in pathetic condition and suggested the Chief Minister to consider their plight and include them also as beneficiaries of the YSR Nethanna Nestam.

He also asked the CM to increase the benefit under YSR Nethanna Nestham from Rs 24, 000 to Rs 50, 000 to help them become economically stable. The AIHRF president submitted that thousands of the handloom workers lost their livelihood due to the spread of the coronavirus.

He said that many families of these workers are struggling to meet ends and requested the Chief Minister to provide groceries of 25kgs rice, 5kgs red gram, 2kgs edible oil, and financial help of Rs 5000 every month to every household of handloom weavers, shed workers and allied workers, up to August 2022. He also requested Jagan Mohan Reddy to order the banks to provide loans up to Rs 5lakh to the weavers under the MUDRA scheme.

Narasimham also informed that the government is providing one cent of land for the construction of house under YSR Housing Scheme, but the allocation is not sufficient for the house and handloom shed. He suggested the Chief Minister to allocate 3 cents of land to the weavers' families and complete the housing with the full subsidy by reintroducing the Workshed cum House programme.

He requested the government to announced an ex gratia of Rs 20lakh to the kin of the weavers who died of the coronavirus, and deposit Rs 50 lakh for each of the minor children whose both parents died of the Covid-19. He asked the Chief Minister to extend the free electricity to weavers' scheme to 200 units and see it is implemented all over the state. He also requested the government to allocate Rs 1000 crore for the welfare of the weavers in the state.