Chirala: Handloom workers demand supply of yarn at 30% subsidy

Chirala: Rashtra Cheneta Jana Samakhya organised a massive rally with about 400 weavers from Jandrapet to Tahsildar office in Chirala on Friday and submitted a representation to Bapatla District Collector K Vijaya through the Tahsildar.

At a meeting in front of Tahsildar office with handloom weavers and workers from various villages in Chirala division, the weavers' leaders Devana Vara Nageswara Rao, Macharla Mohan Rao, Kurapati Narayana, Lella Bhaskara Rao, Munagala Venkateswarlu, and others explained that handloom industry, which is second after agriculture in providing livelihood in the country, is experiencing severe crisis after the Union government threw open the gates for FDIs from 1991.

Though the government boasts with the slogan, 'Swadesi and Make in India', the leaders alleged that the policies of the rulers helped products of industries made on machines sell as handloom products by violating the Handloom Products Reservation Act 1985. As a result of these violations, many weavers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are facing problems in making a living. Kasina Padmanabham and his family members had committed suicide.

The weavers informed the Collector in their representation, that Covid pandemic has ruined the economic situation of the families of handloom weavers and workers. They said that the weavers and workers are receiving fewer wages and less work since the pandemic due to the market conditions.

Apart from these ordeals, the Union government threw a bomb on the weavers and workers in the name of increased GST, from 5 per cent to 12 per cent on the yarn, colours, chemicals, dyed silk, and jari, they added.

The leaders said that the government, which is being portrayed itself as a welfare-oriented government, is creating circumstances of denying the right to work under Article 41, living wage under Article 43 and failing in valuing and preserving the rich heritage of our composite culture under Article 51AF. They alleged that the government didn't make any allocations to the handloom sector from the Rs 22.32 lakh crore earmarked for the assistance of industrial development. The weavers' leaders demanded the government to see the yarn imported from the European countries be supplied to the weavers by at least 30 per cent.