Power subsidy restrictions force Sircilla weavers to stay away from orders

With recent restrictions on power supply to powerloom units, weavers are not able to accept all the orders coming their way, with most of them accepting only about 10 to 15 percent orders.

Rajanna-Sircilla: Weavers in Sircilla, who have been facing difficulties due to lack of government orders, have got a ‘pongal’ order from the Tamil Nadu government.

However, with recent restrictions on power supply to powerloom units, they are not able to accept all the orders coming their way, with most weavers accepting only about 10 to 15 percent orders. From Tamil Nadu, the government, which distributes sarees and lungis to people on the occasion of Sankranti (Pongal) festival, usually gives orders to weavers in different places. Sircilla weavers usually get orders this way every year. However, this year, they could not take many orders, with orders for only 30 lakh sarees being accepted.

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They are citing restrictions on power subsidy as the main reason for staying away from taking more orders, Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies (MACS) Associations general secretary Polu Shankar said.

In order to extend support to the weaving community, the previous State governments had supplied power to weaving units on a 50 percent subsidy considering the units as cottage industry. The power subsidy, which commenced in 2001, continued till the recent past. Under category-IV, each unit of power was charged Rs.4. Of that, weavers used to pay Rs 2 and the remaining amount was paid by the government. According to the government order issued in 2001, the subsidy was applicable only for ten powerlooms (up to 10 HP). However, the condition was not strictly implemented in the wake of starvation deaths and suicides among the weaving community in Sircilla.

This changed after the current Congress government came to power, with an order issued on May 20, 2024, instructing officials to implement the 10 HP rule without fail. As a result, almost all the weaving units came under the third category from the fourth category since all the units had more than 10 powerlooms. This was forcing weavers to pay Rs 8.50 per unit of power.

Since almost all weaving units have more than ten powerlooms, weavers were facing troubles to run the units by paying such a big amount towards power bills, Shankar said and requested the State government to enhance power subsidy to 20 powerlooms (up to 20 HP).