KTR accuses Union govt of overlooking Telangana’s textile town

Accusing the Centre of deliberately neglecting Telangana for political reasons, former minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao has demanded that a mega power loom cluster should be set up at Sircilla, which is also his Assembly constituency.

Demanding the inclusion of the project in the upcoming Union Budget, he regretted that despite fulfilling every criterion, Sircilla has been overlooked by the Centre even as he has been raising this long-pending demand for the past ten years. Sircilla, in the past, had been haunted by the suicides of weavers burdened by debt.

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In a hard-hitting letter to Union Minister of Textiles Giriraj Singh, the BRS working president raised the issue of sanctioning a Mega Power Loom Cluster at Sircilla under the Comprehensive Power Loom Cluster Development Scheme (CPCDS). Pointing out that Sircilla was once the textile capital of Telangana with 30,000 power looms and tens of thousands of weavers and workers, he stated that Sircilla had been consistently overlooked for the past ten years, resulting in the perception that there was “regional discrimination against Telangana.”

“Any further delay will only reinforce the growing perception that Telangana is being deliberately neglected for political reasons, a perception that the Union government should seriously introspect upon,” he added.

Rao also took a dig at the eight BJP MPs from the state, including two ministers, who, he said, chose to ignore the plight of the weavers of the textile town. “It is particularly unfortunate that despite Telangana electing BJP members of Parliament to the Lok Sabha and having representation in the Union Council of Ministers, the legitimate and long-pending demand of Sircilla’s weaving community continues to be ignored.

Sircilla fulfils every technical, economic, and social criterion for a Mega power loom cluster. What it lacks today is not merit but Centre’s intent, ” said Rao, who, during the tenure of the BRS, ensured that the weavers get contracts of weaving sarees and cloth for school uniforms. He claimed that the proposal has been kept in abeyance for several years now.

Rao also urged the Union minister to rise above partisan considerations and uphold the spirit of cooperative federalism and ensure that the Union Budget delivers justice to Sircilla’s weavers.