Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday directed the Handlooms and Textiles Department to chalk out an action plan including demand, supply capacity, marketing and how to ensure remunerative wages to the weavers and what more government support is needed for all these.
The Chief Minister also asked whether any nodal agency was required to coordinate all these functioning. He wanted the APCO and Handloom sector to be ready to meet all the requirements of the Social Welfare, BC Welfare, ST Welfare and Rajiv Vidya Missions in time. He had a detailed preparatory review of the issues, functioning and demands of the Handlooms and Textiles department with Handlooms and Textiles Minister, MP and top officials at Secretariat.
It may be stated here that the Chief Minister will have a face to face meeting with the representatives of the Handlooms sector at Jubilee Hall on October 20.
Handlooms and Textiles Minister Prasad Kumar, Rajya Sabha Member Rapolu Anand Bhasker, Government Whip Anil, Principal Secretary (Industries – Handlooms and Textiles) D Srnivisulu, Principal Secretary (Finance) V Bhasker and other officials attended the meeting.
According to a CMO release, the Budgetary allocations for the Handloom sector have been enhanced from Rs 50.69 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 212.55 crore in 2012-13. The State Government have implemented Loan Waiver scheme to Individual Handloom Weavers-Weavers Cooperative Societies and released Rs 163.71 crore. The Chief Minister has also waived working capital loans and government loans pertaining to 1009 Weavers Cooperative Societies worth Rs 109.68 crore benefitting 1,38,128 weavers and Individual loans of 29,289 handloom weavers worth Rs 54.03 crore.
Andhra Pradesh stands third in terms of commercial production next to West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Total Handloom Production in Andhra Pradesh is Rs 1200 crore out of which, Rs 300 crore comes from the cooperative fold.
–Agencies