Weavers’ suicides: Govt yet to decide on compensation

The district-level three-member committee formed by the State government has not taken any decision even after eight months after the beginning of the weavers’ suicides in the textile town.

Rajanna-Sircilla: The district-level three-member committee formed by the State government in the wake of a spate of suicides by weavers has not yet taken any decision on the compensation to be given to the family members of the weavers’ who ended their lives. The district-level three-member committee led by the RDO is the official body to decide the genuinity of suicides and recommend names to the government for compensation.

However, the committee has not taken any decision even after eight months after the beginning of the weavers’ suicides in the textile town. Weavers as well as other workers, who are completely dependent on the textile industry, lost employment due to a lack of government orders like Bathukamma, Christmas, and Ramzan gifts. Unable to run the families and clear debts taken for medical treatment and other expenses, weavers were forced to take an extreme step.

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So far, about ten weavers from Sircilla textile town died by suicide due to lack of employment during the last eight months.

Responding to suicides, Handlooms and Textiles Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao announced that an inquiry would be conducted into the weaver’s suicides in Sircilla and suitable measures would be taken to provide ex-gratia. However, no inquiry has commenced so far.

The district administration is following the regular procedure to finalise the names of weavers for government assistance. The three-member committee will decide the genuinity of weavers by going through all the reports including the postmortem report, final report, FIR copy, and panchanama report.

While the RDO acts as chairman of the committee, the Assistant Director of Handlooms and Textiles will be the member convener. The local DSP will also be a member of the committee. After getting reports of all the deceased weavers, the committee will sit and finalise the genuinity by going through all reports. The committee has not convened its meeting since it got the final report of only one weaver.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Assistant Director, Handlooms and Textiles, M Sagar said that after getting the final reports including the postmortem report, panchanama report, and FIR copy, the committee would take a decision after going through all facts. The names finalised by the committee would be sent to the government for compensation through the district Collector, he informed.

Stating that it was the responsibility of the family members of the deceased weavers to submit the final report to the committee, the AD informed that so far, they received only one report. They were trying to get final reports of all dead weavers as early as possible, he said.