Weavers corner Minister for neglect

The state government was at the receiving end with the weavers' delegation from Anantapur cornering Minister for Handlooms and Textiles P Shankar Rao for not coming to the aid of the handloom weavers reeling under the pressure mounted by powerloom traders.

The weavers are gradually being marginalised with rising costs of raw materials while the powerloom traders are dominating the scene with latest designs and higher production capacities.

Replying to them, the Minister passed the blame on to Union Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi and held her responsible for short supply of silk  yarn - the raw material required for the handloom weavers.

He said that she, despite being from AP, was directing the supply of silk yarn to Tamil Nadu due to the pressure mounted on her by Union Minister for Textiles Murasoli Maran. He said that this was happening in spite of reminders from Andhra Pradesh.

The Minister also made clear that there was shortage of funds as the budget allocated to the textiles was very low and assured that he would hold parley with the Chief Minister and do the needful.

Mr Shankar Rao told media persons at the Secretariat on Friday that the silk yarn was in shortage and Andhra Pradesh depended mostly on silk yarn imports from China, which had been dominating the world market even in respect of deciding rate and supply as their quality was superior. 

The Minister assured that he would apprise the Chief Minister to arrange to procure the silk yarn from Karnataka Silk Board to ease the situation as also to take steps to hike the production of mulberry cultivation, which is also not up to the expectation.

Later a package would be announced to the handloom sector, he said.

Stating that there was a proposal to increase the weavers' subsidy shortly, Dr Shankar Rao said that steps would be initiated to compete with the powerloom sector.

As regards compensation to the weavers who were committing suicides, he clarified that the issue would be sorted out as there was funds crunch.

Secretary to Government Ranjan Acharya made it clear that mulberry cultivation was neglected and measures would be taken to improve it as also to check the local traders in Anantapur who were exploiting the situation.

Ms Acharya added that sericulture support would be taken to help improve the situation and a package also would be announced soon to the weavers. The waiver of loans of Rs 312 crore would be affected in March next.

The requirement of silk yarn was 10,000 metric tonnes in the state but due to its shortage, the handlooms were in the loopline, she said.