Jogipet weavers homeless promises remain on paper

The handloom weavers of Jogipet Handloom Welfare Cooperative Society are currently in a helpless situation as Revenue authorities have started demolishing their houses for construction of a hostel building on the Government Polytechnic College premises. Left with nowhere else to go, the poor weavers approached Mandal Revenue Officer P Nageshwar Rao on Wednesday, pleading with him not to force them out of their homes unless alternative accommodation was provided to him.

On July 18, The Hans India had published a story on the plight of around 30 families of handloom weavers of Jogipet, who fear losing their houses which were given to their cooperative society way back in 1988. The weavers have been paying property taxes, installments for their houses and had made a colony which was named Markandeya Colony for almost three decades now. The weavers have not been given pattas for their houses by their cooperative society even after full payment of their housing loan installments after all these years.

On Monday, two vacant houses were demolished by the contractor of the college building, who used JCBs to demolish the houses in the absence of either Revenue officials or the police officers, which is mandated according to the law. No notice had been served to the weavers to vacate their houses till date. Power supply for the colony has been cut-off since then.

The weavers are not against giving away their houses for the construction of hostel building, but they have been demanding the government to construct 2BHK houses for them before vacating them. Though local MLA Babu Mohan had assured them that the government would construct houses for them, no written assurance has been given and 2BHK housing for the poor has not even begun in Andole mandal. This has left the weavers in a lurch. The weavers are planning to launch hunger strikes from Thursday onwards.