Finance, Handlooms Depts at loggerheads

A Ravindra Seshu The CM at a huge meeting of weavers on October 20, 2012, had promised several things including constitution of special weavers' bank with Rs 100 crore as corpus fund. None of his promises is mentioned in the budget Hyderabad: The officials of Finance and Handlooms & Textiles Departments are at loggerheads as there is no mention of any allocations to the handloom and textiles department in 2013-14 Budget speech of Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy. The government feels quite embarrassed following the episode. A While the Finance Department officials aver that the file on handlooms and textiles did not reach them on time, the officials of Handlooms and Textiles Department claim that they had sent it as per the schedule. Minister for Handlooms and Textiles G Prasad Kumar is in a shock after finding no mention of the department details in Anam's Speech wanted to take the issue to the notice of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. Various political parties have already lashed out at the government on the issue, saying that the Chief Minister has no concern for the issues of weavers. Around 10 lakhs weavers in the State eagerly awaited relief packages in the 2013-14 budget. The Chief Minister had on October 20, 2012 addressed a meeting in which thousands of weavers participated and heard the problems of weavers in the State. Then, he made several promises to the weavers. His promises included various things including constitution of special weavers' bank with Rs 100 crores as corpus fund. Interestingly, no single issue of his promises could find a mentioned in 2013-14 year budget. As per the details, the handlooms and textiles had sent proposals worth Rs 1,900 crore for 2013-14 year budget. The department was given Rs 197 crore excluding non-plan expenditure of Rs 15 crore in 2012-13 and the department expected double the figure in 2013-14 Budget. But, it obtained the same amount of Rs 197 crore excluding Rs 17 crore of non-plan expenditure. Siricilla, where hundreds of weavers committed suicides drew national focus, was not mentioned in the udget. The government promised a subsidy worth Rs 6.5 crore to the weavers of powerloom in Siricilla. But, not a single rupee was sanctioned to it. On the other hand, Weavers Congress President K A N Moorty said that lakhs of weavers in the State felt humiliation on finding no mention of allocations to the handloom and textiles in the budget speech given by Anam.

• No mention of handlooms & textiles in the State BudgetA
• Handlooms and Textiles Minister G Prasad Kumar in a shock
• Around 10 lakh weavers in the State are dismayed
• Siricilla, the hub of weavers' suicides, got no solace
• Oppn lashing out at govt for negligence of the sector
• Sector allocated same amount of Rs 197 cr as in FY13