Responding to the harsh criticism from the opposition that, it is disregarding the interest of the ailing handloom industry workers, the Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to waive the loans that it has extended to cooperative societies and individual weavers.
Information Minister, J Geeta Reddy, after a Cabinet meeting said that, the Cabinet has also passed on directions to APCOB, the apex institution of weaver's cooperatives to make sure that fresh loans are also sanctioned to the weavers. This would further lay a burden of Rs. 3.274 billion on the government treasury.
The government's move is seen to benefit more than 2.5 million weavers.
Reddy informed that, they were very much aware of the various difficulties confronted by the weavers like, drop in fabric production, mounting prices of raw material, etc.
Karimangar's Sircilla and Dubbaka in Medak district, Prakasam, Krishna, Nalgonda and East Godavari districts are the areas where handloom weavers are mainly concentrated.
Over the past few months, there have been incidences of weavers committing suicide, and the opposition has been blaming the ruling party for overlooking the problems of these weavers.