KTR lunges at Centre for anti-weaver tack

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi working president KT Rama Rao on Friday slammed the BJP-led Union government for its anti-weaver policies. Demanding that Centre to abolish 5 per cent GST being imposed on the handlooms and textiles industry in the country, the TRS leader said that he would be writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue soon and also urged people of Telangana to post bulk letters to the Prime Minister's Office and bring the Centre to its knees.

Participating in a meeting organised by Padmashali community at Manneguda in Ibrahimpatnam constituency here, KTR said that Modi was the first Prime Minister to impose tax on handlooms and textiles sector which was second largest employer of the country. The Modi government was determined to end all the welfare and developmental initiatives of the successive governments for weavers.

"From National Handloom Board and National Powerloom Board to Mahatma Gandhi Bhunkar Yojana and weavers' insurance and savings schemes, the Centre is removing all the schemes.

Further, there is no response from the Union government to the requests from the Telangana government to support weavers," the Minister said.

Due to the Centre's lackadaisical attitude, India was far behind from countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in textile production. the Union Government remained irresponsive to requests to support establishment of Kakatiya Mega Textile Park, National Textile Research Institute, Handlooms Export Promotion Council, Institute of Handloom Technology and other facilities, KTR said and pointed out that even after four years, Union Home Minister Amit Shah's promise to establish a handloom park at Narayanpet also remained a non-starter.

KTR claimed the Telangana government was ahead of other States in implementing several welfare schemes for the weavers' community.

The TRS government has been allocating a budget of Rs 1,200 crore per annum for the welfare of the handloom sector, provided a 40 per cent subsidy on yarn and dyes through 'Chenetha Mithra' scheme, introduced Rs five lakh insurance coverage for handloom and power loom workers through 'Nethanna Ku Bhima' and implementing 'Nethannaku Cheyutha' scheme.