Scrap additional duty charges on powerloom weavers: CPM

Nagari (Chittoor dist): Power loom weavers and workers on Monday staged a protest under the banner of CITU at the electricity office in Nagari town demanding that the government withdraw the additional duty charges imposed on powerlooms to save the owners and workers. Holding red flags and raising slogans against Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (SPDCL), the weavers and workers of powerlooms came in rally from the Clock Tower centre to Transco AD Office in the town.

Addressing the weavers, CPM senior leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Penumalli Madhu said that the power loom operators were crippled with the additional power charges collected in the name of additional duty and demanded the government to withdraw them on powerlooms to save the owners and workers. "It is a double whammy for powerloom operators as they are bearing the burden of recent hike in power charges and also the electricity duty breaking their spine,'' he said warning that the CITU along with other like-minded outfits would intensify the stir if the government did not stop collecting additional charges from power loom

weavers. He sought the TDP and JSP to support the weavers and question the government on the additional power charges. CITU district secretary Kandarapu Murali demanded Minister R K Roja, who is elected from Nagari as MLA, to intervene and press the government for the withdrawal of additional electricity charges

Tirupati district Farmers' Association general secretary Vandavasi Nagaraju, Chittoor district CITU president Vada Gangaraju, general secretary P Chaithanya, leaders Venkatesh and Power Loom Workers Union leader Perumal spoke.