iD Desk
iD Desk
Andhra Pradesh handloom weavers’ community has expressed their strong support for Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the upcoming general and assembly elections in the state since Chandrababu ignored the industry in his previous term, but the current government has backed them in last five years, and the sentiment was echoed, during the interaction meeting held in a convention center near Mangalagiri on Saturday. Addressing the Mangalagiri handloom weavers’ community, who are known for their craft in both the Telugu states, Jagan thanked them for their overwhelming support and said, “We have tied- up with international e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart to sell the handlooms via online platforms. Further, we have cleared Rs 120 crore debts in APCO (Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society) and gave Rs 460 crores for the development of handloom weavers. “We are giving three sets of uniforms for every student in the government schools, and the preference has been given to the handloom weavers, and only the extra orders are given to power looms. It may be noted that over 44 lakh students are studying in government schools,” said Jagan.
“Even in politics, to further support the weavers, I had called Alla Ramakrishna Reddy and discussed with him and chose my weaver sister, Lavanya, as the YSRCP candidate for Mangalagiri. But Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh are denying the tickets to BC community members, where their population is high. Even in Mangalagiri, TDP gave the seat to Nara Lokesh and spending crores of rupees to unfairly take the seat from us. Be in Mangalagiri or Kuppam, there is a higher percentage of BCs, but there is no importance given to the BCs,” said Jagan Mohan Reddy. “We have announced BC candidate for Kuppam as well. In 200 seats (175 assembly and 20 Lok Sabha seats), 50% of the seats were given to SC/ST/BC and minorities which has never been the case in the history of Andhra Pradesh,” asserts Jagan. “Seven municipal chairmen in the state are handloom weavers, and in Mangalagiri, out of 1,20,180 houses, 1,08,408 receive benefits from our various welfare schemes, which is 90.1% of the households. There are 83 secretariats in Mangalagiri, and Rs. 1529 crore were given through DBT, and Rs. 2,265 crore through non-DBT schemes,” according to Jagan.
Chief Minister Jagan further said, “When we elect a leader, he/she has the responsibility of changing the lives of the poor. Look at the 2014 manifesto of Chandrababu Naidu and his alliance promises to handloom weavers… they haven’t scored even 2 out of 100 marks…” He went on highlighting Chandrababu’s failed promises like property tax exemption for Handloom Cooperative Societies, ID card for the loom workers, 1 lakh corporate loan facility, the special fund (budget allocation) of Rs. 1000 Cr for handloom weavers, free health insurance for weavers, increase in pension, district level centers to help the weavers marketing the products, Handloom Park, which was not fulfilled. “In the last 58 months, we have spent over Rs. 3,706 Cr for Handloom Weavers, without any corruption, or middlemen and in a transparent manner. Through YSR Nethanna Nestham, we have spent over Rs. 970 crores benefiting 1,00,006 weavers,” asserts Jagan. Comparing the pension distribution in Chandrababu’s term, where only Rs 1000 was given to beneficiaries except two months before the election when they increased it, Jagan said, “We are giving Rs. 3000 as pension. Chandrababu has spent only Rs. 4000 crore per year, but we are spending Rs. 2000 crore per month for pensions, which were distributed on people’s doorstep with the help of volunteers. I am just following the footsteps of my father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who started the pension distribution.” “Over 94,410 handloom weavers’ families are taking pensions at their doorsteps,” said Jagan.
