Telangana to bring separate policy for handloom weavers

The loan waiver is likely to help about 2,000 plus weaver families

Telangana Government will soon unveil a separate policy for handloom weavers, who are facing hardships but have received some succour in form of recently announced loan waiver.

The Telangana Government will soon come out with a separate policy for handloom weavers in centres like Gadwal and Pochampalli and other areas of the State, Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj K Taraka Rama Rao today said in Hyderabad.

He was talking to reporters after inaugurating a handloom products exhibition, 'Colours of Rajasthan',. Although Telangana has some of the famous handloom centres in the country, the weavers there are facing hardship. For workers who are dependent on powerlooms for livelihood we have announced a loan waiver. The Cabinet has taken a decision in this regard and we will elaborate on it in the forthcoming Budget session, he said.

Rao represents Sircilla Assembly constituency in Karimnagar district, which once competed with top textile centres in the country such as Solapur and Surat. In Sircilla there are 36,000 powerlooms and over 50,000 weavers. Powerloom weavers in Sircilla are a distressed lot. It is for their protection that we thought of writing off their loans.

Rao said he recently met Union Minister of State for Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar in Delhi and requested that Sircilla be given a status of mega powerloom cluster. It (the status) will enable the looms to get subsidy on electricity and also benefit the workers. The loan waiver is likely to help about 2,000 plus weaver families, the Minister added.