HANAMKONDA: If despair had an address, it would be the Textile Park in Madikonda, Hanamkonda district. Once planned as a busy hub for weaving and trade, the Kakatiya Weavers Cooperative Society’s Textile Park now stands silent, with powerlooms at rest and weavers waiting for work.
About 160 powerloom unit owners are on the verge of shutting shop — not because of a global recession or a pandemic, but because work orders have stopped coming altogether. The ongoing economic downturn has left the looms, once symbols of livelihood, looking like relics of a fading craft.
A total of 364 powerloom units were sanctioned under the cooperative. Of these, 160 owners secured bank loans and installed machinery, waiting for business to grow. But without orders, half of them — around 80 — have already folded. The rest continue, not out of hope, but out of habit. The equation is simple: no orders mean no income, yet electricity bills and yarn costs keep mounting.
According to Kakatiya Weavers Cooperative Society president D Swamy, the textile park was developed in partnership with the Union government, which provided a subsidy of Rs 8 crore through the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). The society contributed another `2 crore. “The 160 members who got loans installed the machinery and started work, but the remaining 200 members haven’t even had their loans sanctioned,” said Swamy.
He added that the issue had been raised with the MLA concerned, KR Nagaraju, who assured the release of funds and subsidies from the state government.
Swamy has now appealed to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for “support and cooperation to weaver beneficiaries.” The message is stark: step in and help the powerloom owners before the park itself goes silent.