Telangana govt gets ‘saree’ rap

Strap: Protests over ‘poor quality’ mar govt dole

Suresh Dharur

Freebies may not necessarily bring in political dividends all the time. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) seems to have realised this the hard way. Its ambitious scheme of free distribution of handloom sarees to poor women has run into rough weather with protests breaking out at several places across the state over the poor quality of the sarees.

The Congress, BJP, Telugu Desam Party and Left parties have joined the chorus of protests and sought a thorough probe into what they termed was a multi-crore scam to hoodwink people.

The government’s plan is to distribute about 1.04 crore sarees by the end of this month as a gift to women, coinciding with the ongoing “Bathukamma” festival. The scheme is expected to cost Rs 222 crore.

However, soon after the distribution started early this week, amid much fanfare, protests broke out with angry and disappointed women setting afire the sarees, claiming that these were of sub-standard quality, “not fit even to clean the floors”.

While the ruling TRS saw Opposition conspiracy behind the protests and burning incidents, the Opposition parties demanded a probe into the alleged irregularities in the procurement of inferior quality sarees.

“This is a big scam. It is clear that the authorities had purchased cheap polyester sarees in bulk from Surat merchants and distributed these in attractive boxes with KCR’s (Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao) image. The remaining amount was pocketed by the ruling party leaders,” TDP state working president A Revanth Reddy alleged.

The government had fooled women saying that each saree would cost around Rs 200 but what was distributed was worth not even Rs 50, Reddy alleged.

“The government should apologise to the womenfolk for the goof-up,” demanded state BJP president Dr K Lakshman. He also sought a judicial inquiry into the procurement of sarees.

“The government has hurt the self-respect of Telangana women and it doesn’t even understand what kind of sarees are worn by women during Bathukamma (a local floral festival),” Congress MLAs DK Aruna, Padmavathi Reddy and Sunita Laxma Reddy said.

However, state IT Minister KT Rama Rao, who is the Chief Minister’s son, sought to turn the tables on the Opposition parties, saying they were indulging in cheap politics by manufacturing the protests. He alleged that the Congress leaders were behind the incidents of burning sarees.

The collectors of all the 31 districts in the state have been overseeing the saree distribution programme. “The fact that over two lakh women came out to accept the sarees on the second day itself is a testimony to the success of the scheme,” said the Director of handlooms and textiles, Shailaja Ramaiayer.

Every poor woman above the age of 18 years, irrespective of her caste and religion, will receive the gift. The free saree scheme is aimed at achieving multiple goals. The primarily goal is to help the ailing handloom sector. Nearly 52 lakh sarees have been sourced from traditional weavers, a majority of them from Siricilla, the handloom hub of the state. This provided the weavers a business of over Rs 70 crore. The remaining sarees have been procured from Surat. About 20,000 power looms worked round the clock to produce the cloth.

The sarees are being distributed through ration shops.

Bathukamma is a week-long floral festival of Telangana, celebrated by womenfolk with exotic flowers of the region. The festival has over the years become a symbol of Telangana culture and identity. Soon after coming to power in 2014, the TRS government declared it as a state festival.

Interestingly, the state government had also distributed clothes to Muslims during Ramzan and Christians on the eve of Christmas.

‘Baahubali’ touch

Amaravathi, the proposed new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, is set to get a filmi touch. The state government has roped in SS Rajamouli, the director of blockbuster movie series “Baahubali”, to design some of the key buildings in the upcoming city.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has asked a British architectural firm, which has been selected to provide the designs of the new city, to take inputs from Rajamouli. The set designs in the highest grosser have come in for wide appreciation from film critics.

Rajamouli would be flown to London to assist the British company ‘Foster and Partners’ in finalising the designs. The Chief Minister will also visit the firm in London on October 25, during his tour to Britain and United Arab Emirates, to finalise the designs.