80,686 weavers get Rs 194 cr under Nethanna Nestham

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday disbursed Rs 194 crore financial assistance to 80,686 handloom weavers as part of the 'YSR Nethanna Nestham' scheme at Venkatagiri in Tirupati district.

The eligible beneficiaries received an annual assistance of Rs 24,000 under the scheme which is aimed at making the weaver families owning looms self-reliant. "Until now, we disbursed Rs 1.20 lakh each into the accounts of eligible weavers. With this scheme alone, Rs 970 crore has been disbursed among the weavers in these five years," the CM said after distributing the assistance for the fifth year.

Besides 'YSR Nethanna Nestham', the Chief Minister noted that an amount of Rs 1,397 crore was disbursed towards weavers' pension and Rs 469 crore to APCO (the Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers' Cooperative Society Ltd), which also included the clearing pending arrears from the previous government.

Meanwhile, Jagan claimed that weavers faced problems under the TDP regime with some of them dying by suicide. He alleged that the TDP government didn't even think about helping the families of 77 weavers who committed suicide. Jagan further said after he became the Chief Minister, the government gave a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to those 77 families.

The Chief Minister lashed out at actor-politician and Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan for making allegations against ward and village volunteers. He charged that people like Pawan Kalyan, TDP supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu and others were making allegations against such volunteers who are rendering exemplary services to the masses.

Hailing their services, the Chief Minister called the volunteers as our own children from the neighbourhood or the same village who were known to everyone and alleged that Pawan Kalyan is unnecessarily maligning their reputation.

He noted that 60 per cent of the 2.6 lakh volunteers were women and termed them as his sisters. Though Jana Sena claims to have an alliance with the BJP, he said, Pawan Kalyan's party is in an unofficial partnership with the TDP and called it the 'B team' of the principal opposition party (TDP) in the state.