Wear handlooms at least once in a week: NAFSCOB chairman

Karimnagar: The Chairman of NAFSCOB, TSCAB and DCCB Konduru Ravinder Rao has called upon people to wear handlooms atleast once in a week to encourage the weavers.

He inaugurated a two-day handlooms exhibition organised by the NABARD as part of National Handlooms Week here on Tuesday along with the District Collector RV Karnan and NABARD Telangana Region General Manager, Smita Mohanty.

Ravinder Rao lauded NABARD for organising the handloom exhibitions to support the weavers to market their products. He reminded that IT and Handlooms Minister KT Rama Rao has also given a call to all sections of people to wear handlooms on every Monday.

He informed that the Telangana government has been supporting the handloom industry on which around one lakh people were depending for their livelihood. The government has allocated Rs 1200 crore in the budget for handlooms promotion while the funds allotted in integrated Andhra Pradesh was only Rs 70 crore.

Collector Karnan appealed to people to appreciate the hard work of weavers and their family members and the time spent by them weaving handloom products. A weaver's family spends more than 100 hours to weave a fine artistic saree, he informed.

Mohanty said NABARD was taking initiatives to encourage the handlooms by providing skill development training for the self-help group women to produce value-added fabric such as Ikkat sarees in Nalgonda and parts in the State.

Karimnagar NABARD DDM P Ananth, its general manager Manohar Reddy and others were present.