Karimnagar: Telangana State Cooperative Apex Bank Chairman Konduru Ravinder Rao has called upon all sections of society to encourage weavers by purchasing and wearing handlooms. He emphasised the need to preserve the traditional weaving art from extinction.
Ravinder Rao, District Collector RV Karnan and NABARD Telangana Region General Manager Smita Mohanty inaugurated a two-day handlooms exhibition organised by NABARD as part of the National Handloom Week celebrations at Revenue Gardens here on Tuesday.
Speaking on the occasion, he said that several weavers and their family were solely dependent on this ancient weaving art. “It is time for us to encourage handlooms by wearing their products so that they will get employment and conserve the ancient art”, he pointed out.
Appreciating the NABARD for organising the special handloom exhibition to encourage marketing of their products, he said that Minister for IT and Handlooms K T Rama Rao had also given a call to all sections of people to wear handlooms every Monday. He said the State government was taking all measures to encourage handloom weavers and allocated Rs 1,200 crore in the budget when compared to only Rs 70 crore in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Karnan urged the people to recognise the hard work and time spent by the weavers and their family in weaving handloom products. Stating that the entire weaver’s family get involved in handloom spending more than 100 hours to weave a fine artistic saree, he said people should wear handlooms at least once a week since the material is not only good but is also comfortable when compared to synthetic fabric.
Highlighting the importance of encouraging handlooms, Smita Mohanty said NABARD was taking up initiatives to encourage handlooms by providing skill training for self-help group women to produce value-added fabric such as Ikath sarees in Nalgonda, Amarachinta handloom and silk sarees in Mahbubnagar district and Chithrika artisans producer company in Hyderabad.
Karimnagar NABARD DDM P Ananth explained the importance of organising handloom exhibition to encourage sales of products produced by weavers.
He said that several stalls were set up by handloom weavers of Karimnagar, Warangal, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and other districts. NABARAD general manager Manohar Reddy and others were also present.
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