Distribution of Bathukamma sarees kicks off in Telangana

Hyderabad: Handlooms Minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday said the State Government has commenced the distribution of sarees to women for Bathukamma festivities. All arrangements have been made in the villages to distribute sarees to women. Measures have been taken to ensure there was no inconvenience for women during distribution of sarees, the Minister said. […]

Hyderabad: Handlooms Minister KT Rama Rao on Saturday said the State Government has commenced the distribution of sarees to women for Bathukamma festivities. All arrangements have been made in the villages to distribute sarees to women. Measures have been taken to ensure there was no inconvenience for women during distribution of sarees, the Minister said. In the wake of the pandemic and considering the local conditions, District Collectors have formulated necessary guidelines for the distribution programme.

The Minister said the State Government had launched the Bathukamma sarees distribution programme in 2017 as a means to achieve two objectives of ensuring respectable income to weavers and offer sarees to women for the festivities. Since the launch of the programme, there has been considerable improvement in the living conditions of the weavers in the State and also their skills, he said.

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About 20,000 power loom weavers in the State have got handful of jobs and the wages of power loom workers’ across the State have almost doubled since the commencement of the programme, he informed. “Through this project, weavers have enhanced their skills and they are now prepared to produce new designs and different types of garments,” the Minister added.

He further said that Bathukamma sarees distribution programme has given impetus to State government’s efforts to strive for further development of the power loom industry. Since 2017, 3.90 crore sarees have been distributed till last year. “Every year, we are making changes in the process of making and distributing sarees,” Rama Rao said.

This time, handlooms department has prepared sarees with designs and patterns designed by NIFT designers, taking into account the views expressed by women representatives from MEPMA, SERP and Self-Help Groups. About 810 different types of sarees have been made available in 30 new designs and in 20 different colors. All the sarees are made of 100 per cent polyester filament or yarn, he added.

In addition to one crore regular sarees, measuring 6.30 metres, nearly 8 lakh sarees measuring 9 metres in length have been made available and they will be distributed exclusively to elderly women in the Northern districts of the State. This year, the government has allocated Rs 333.14 crore for the project.

Over 3.8 lakh women to get sarees in Siddipet

Finance Minister T Harish Rao has launched the distribution of Bathukamma sarees by presenting them to women at KCR Nagar in Siddipet town on Saturday.

Talking to women on this occasion, Harish Rao said that over 3.83 lakh women will get Bathukamma sarees in the district. Saying that the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao always wanted to see the poor people live with self-respect, Rao said that the Chief Minister came up with several schemes such as 2BHK houses, Kalyanalakshmi, KCR Kit, Bathukamma sarees and others which have changed the lives of the poor to a great extent. Meanwhile, the distribution of Bathukamma sarees commenced across the district.

Later, the Minister has also visited Komaticheruvu to examine the arrangements for Bathukamma festival. He has suggested the Commisioner of Police D Joel Davis and Additional Collector Muzammil Khan to make all arrangements on Komaticheruvu to help the citizens celebrate the festival on grand note.

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