Vijayawada: Handlooms minister S. Savitha assured in the State Legislative Assembly that efforts will be made to enhance sales of handloom garments so that weavers can get income throughout the year.
Responding to a query raised by Lokam Naga Madhavi during the Question Hour on Tuesday with Deputy Speaker K. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju in the chair, the minister said their government has started implementing all poll promises made to handloom workers by providing them several benefits.
She pointed out that handloom workers are being provided with a monthly pension of Rs 4,000 at the age of 50 years. 200 units of power to handlooms and 500 units to power looms are being supplied free. She announced plans to implement a health insurance scheme for weavers.
Savitha said sales of handloom garments through APCO (AP Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society) have gone up by 9.8 per cent and readymade garments by 70 per cent. She underlined that they are also taking up sales through e-commerce, selling Rs 32.50 lakh worth of products during the last six months. They have set up three new APCO showrooms.
The minister said they are going to conduct handloom exhibitions abroad to improve sales. She underlined that efforts are on to train handloom weavers in new designs to further increase sales. In this regard, she said they are going to rope in the National Institute of Fashion Technology to provide training to weavers on new trends in designs.
Savitha said two weaver stalls are going to be set up at Vizianagaram and Kurnool, as their respective MPs have allotted Rs 1 crore each for setting up these stalls.
She advised people to wear handloom garments at least once a week to support handloom weavers.
