Karimnagar: National Weavers’ United Joint Action Committee (NWU-JAC) chairman Dasu Suresh alleged that garments manufactured on power looms are being sold at the ongoing week-long State Handloom Expo – 2022 in Karimnagar under the guise of handloom products.
Suresh made the charge after visiting the exhibition going on in Karimnagar. He and other members of NMU-JAC found that products manufactured on power looms in neighbouring state were being sold, instead of handloom garments manufactured by weavers of Telangana state. When they questioned the exhibition organisers in this regard, they did not get any answer, Suresh said. He pointed out that such sales are a punishable offence.
The NMU-JUAC chairman demanded that handloom minister K.T. Rama Rao resign owning up moral responsibility for such sales. “How can a state government sell power-loom garments under guise of handloom products by conducting exhibitions in various districts across the state? Is it not injustice to weavers of the state,” he asked.
Suresh maintained that it is such attitude of state government that is compelling distressed handloom weavers to commit suicide. Around 350 weavers of Telangana have taken their own lives in the past seven years, he pointed out.
Members of NWU-JAC Pasikanti Lakshmi Narsayya, Alakuntla Ellayya, Kokkula Prasad and Adigoppula Satyanarayana, former APCO director Usakoyala Ramachandram, Uduta Ramesh, Eligeti Upendar, Nagraj and Rachakonda Vitaleshwar were among those present.
