Allocate sufficient funds for handloom sector of Telangana in Union Budget: KTR

Textiles Minister KT Rama Rao has urged the Central Government to allocate sufficient funds for strengthening the handloom sector in the State

Hyderabad: Ahead of the union Budget 2023-24, which will be unveiled in February next year, Handlooms and Textiles Minister KT Rama Rao has urged the Central Government to allocate sufficient funds for strengthening the handloom sector in the State.

Rama Rao, while reminding the Centre about its failure to extended any kind of financial support to various pioneering initiatives being undertaken by Telangana government for the development of weavers in the past eight, stated that since this would be the last full budget of the current government, Prime Minister Modi should prove his commitment towards weavers and textile sector by allocating huge funds.

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Recognising the importance of infrastructure to usher rapid progress of the handlooms sector, the State government was establishing Kakatiya Mega Textiles Park in Warangal, he said, adding that the biggest textile park in India was attracting investments from national and international companies.

He said the Centre has options to extend financial support under various schemes to the park, which was being established with Rs 1,600 crore. “At least Rs 900 crore should be allotted in the upcoming budget towards infrastructure for the Mega Textile Park and other programmes,” he said.

The Handlooms and Textiles Minister stated that the Powerloom Sector in Sircilla, which has over 25,000 powerloom machines, be recognised as Mega Powerloom Cluster and allocated Rs 100 crore to it.

Listing the ‘Worker to Owner’ Scheme and other programmes taken up by the State government, he said that it takes over Rs 990 crore for strengthening of value chain, modernisation of power looms in Sircilla, improvement of market, skill development, capacity building, project monitoring, and appealed that a major share of the funds should be announced in the budget for it.

Stating that there are over 40,000 handloom weavers in various parts of Telangana, with most of them in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Gadwal, Warangal, Rajanna Sircilla, Karimnagar, Rama Rao urged the Centre to grant Indian Institute of Handloom Technology to the State. He said that land parcels to establish the institute are available at Gundlapochampally and Yadadri Bhuvanagiri.

The Handlooms and Textiles Minister also urged for the National Textiles Research Institute and Handlooms Exports Promotion Council to be announced in this budget, and to grant Block Level Handlooms Clusters under the National Handloom Development Project.

He made a special appeal to scrap the GST on handlooms products to save the weavers who were in financial crisis.

Rama Rao appealed to the Centre to revive the Handlooms, Powerlooms, and Handicrafts Boards which were dissolved by the union Government and to re-introduce insurance and savings schemes for weavers.

He also wanted the Centre to increase yarn subsidy, similar to the State government, to 50 percent.

Explaining the dire situation of the handloom sector in the country, Rama Rao said that India was lagging behind smaller countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the textiles segment as the Central Government did not provide sufficient infrastructure.

He also said that the State government’s policies, incentives and infrastructure in the Mega Textiles Park attracted globally prominent Kitex Group which was preparing to leave the country.

The Handlooms and Textiles Minister said that Centre’s ‘Make in India’ would be reduced to a slogan if infrastructure and incentives were not provided. “Modi Government has failed miserably in attracting international textile companies to our country,” he alleged.