RAJANNA-SIRCILLA: The Sircilla Textile Park, which plays a significant role in cloth production in the State, is facing a severe financial crunch, so much so that unitholders fear they may be forced to shut operations by the end of the month. “If the financial crunch continues, the Textile park will be shut down from May 1,” said Textile Park Units Association president Annaldas Anil.
After starvation deaths of weavers and workers were reported, the then undivided Andhra Pradesh government had opened the Textile Park in 2002-03 with an investment of Rs 7.73 crore. The then government had allotted 237 plots, but despite two decades have gone by, the park never became fully operational.
Presently, only 50 units are operational in the park, while another 71 units had shut shops due to financial problems. High power bills are the major problem for the unit holders and one of the main reasons for their pathetic state. Unit holders complain that their power bills run into lakhs. They blame the ever-increasing yarn prices and the failure of the State government to supply power at subsidised rates for their pathetic state.
Neighbours help weavers with subsidised power
The unit holders remind that about a year ago, in July 2021, Industries and Textile Minister KT Rama Rao had promised subsidised power. “We are forced to pay Rs 8 per per unit of power while weavers in neighbouring States like Karnataka and Maharashtra pay only Rs 3 per unit,” said Anil. He said that even a 50 per cent subsidy on power bills remains a daydream.
Anil pointed out that there has been no help from both the Union and State governments to the textile sector. The unit holders say that their pleas to the government to allow them to weave at least 25 per cent of the Bathukamma sarees have gone unheard. “We could at least break even if we get the order to weave even 25 per cent of the Bathukamma sarees the government distributes,” a unit holder said.
However, Sircilla Textile Park Administrator Tasneem Athar Jahan said that the government placed orders for the cloth used to make the blouses to be distributed with Bathukamma sarees, but the unit holders did not agree as they wanted to produce both the saree and blouse. She said that the running cost is higher since the looms in the Textile Park are old. “These looms need to be replaced. Those running eight and 12 looms are finding the operating cost not viable. However, the five units that are running on solar power are happy,” Tasneem Jahan said.
“We don’t need central lighting in the Textile Park. We need facilities and orders to run units and the industry,” said some unit holders. CITU leader M Ramesh said that if the Textile Park closes down, it would leave about 1,500 workers with no means to support their families. “They need government help, and that too on priority,” he said.
He said that already, hundreds of workers have lost employment due units shutting down earlier.
Meanwhile, a unit holder, whose loom was dismantled and being loaded in a lorry, said that he did not even recover the cost of the machine itself. “I was forced to sell my loom for Rs 2 lakh. I had purchased it for Rs 7 lakh,” he said.