Warangal: The weaver community is on a strike demanding that the power-loom units raise their wages, but the owners shut the units and halted production, leading to a major crisis in the textiles sector in the Rajanna Sircilla district. As a result, there is non-availability of fabric, traders said.Notably, a Telugu Desam government had set up a textile park on 65 acres of land on the outskirts of Buddenapally village some 20 years ago, which was hoped to provide employment to around 7,000 weavers in Thangallapally mandal. However, the park was able to provide employment to only 2,000 persons in 113 power-loom units. This number slowly dwindled to 65 as around 40 units sold the power-looms. At present, clothes are made with 600 advanced power-looms in the park, with around 1,500 members working in the 65 units. However, in the textile town Sircilla, there are around 250 units with 30,000 power-looms. Some 25,000 weavers are working in various units across the town. The Sircilla textile industry is famous across the country for its manufacture of Polyester clothes that are widely used on special occasions and festivals like Vinayaka Chaturthi and Dasara. There is high demand for the polyester clothes manufactured in Sircilla and these are marketed in states like Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.After the formation of the Telangana state, the government began to place bulk orders, keeping in view the welfare of the weaver community on Bathukamma Sarees and for the school uniforms under the Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM). The weavers got a lot of work.However, citing the election code, the BRS government did not clear about Rs 250 crore of bills for the purchase of Bathukamma Sarees, say the owners of the power-loom units.Apart from this, with a decrease in demand for Polyester clothes in other states, clothes worth Rs 100 crore are stocked in the power-loom units, claim the owners.Textile Park workers’ association president A Anil Kumar told Deccan Chronicle that since the cost of cloth production has increased, the price of the cloth also went up. “Even as the price of the cloth was reduced, some traders are not coming forward to purchase it. Due to this, clothes worth crores were stocked in many power-loom units, he said.“There is no clarity to date about the new orders from the government, which used to give bulk orders in the month of November for school uniforms and Bathukamma Sarees in January, with the formation of the new government in Telangana.”“With bills remaining pending with the government and clothes remaining stocked in the units without sale, it has become very difficult for the owners to run these power-loom units and pay wages to the workers. The government must bail the weaver community out of the present crisis,” he pleaded.G. Mallesham, a worker in the power-loom sector in Sircilla town, told Deccan Chronicle that he used to get Rs 400 to Rs 500 per day by working in the textile park. “If the government purchases the clothes and gives bulk orders again, we can sustain ourselves.”“With units remaining closed for more than two weeks, I faced a loss of around Rs 6,000”, he said.District officer of the textile and jute department, M. Sagar, said the issue was brought to the notice of the textiles minister Tummala Nageshwar Rao and the director of the textiles department A. Varshini.“As per the orders issued by the state government, a report will be prepared and an order is likely to be issued under RVM. There is a possibility the orders are issued within a week to the owners of the power-loom units,” he stated.
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