NALGONDA: Once bitten, twice shy. This holds true for the Telangana government when it comes to the Bathukamma sarees. Taking cue from the last year — when the quality of Bathukamma sarees had drawn widespread flak from women — the State government has preferred being on the safer side by taking a survey on the sarees.
It may be recalled that after the formation of Telangana State, in view of Bhathukamma festival, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had introduced the distribution of sarees to women with white ration card across the State. During Bhathukamma festival last year, around 1.04 crore sarees worth `222 crores were distributed to women across Telangana.
However, women in most of the districts were unhappy with the quality of the sarees and they resorted to burning it on the streets. Opposition parties too took advantage of the situation and fired salvos at the TRS. To avoid a repeat of the 2017 episode, the government had already displayed the sarees during the Kanti Velugu programme and collected the opinion of women about the quality of the sarees.
Sarees in four different colours were on display and opinion of the women folk was sought. Official concerned took down the opinions in written on a register and took their signatures and details against their opinions. These opinions will be sent to the higher officials of Handlooms and Textiles department.
V Sharadha, resident of 16th ward, said that compared to last year, this year’s sarees were of good quality. District Handlooms and Textiles additional director Md Zaheeruddin, speaking to Express, said that widespread positive response was coming from women across the district regarding the quality of Bathukamma sarees. The opinion will be taken till September 15.