Telangana's Sircilla Textile Park set to reopen today
RAJANNA-SIRCILLA : Units in the Sircilla Textile Park will resume working from Tuesday with talks between Sircilla Textile Park Unit Owners’s association and Handlooms and Textiles officials ending on a happy note on Monday.The talks took place at the instance of IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao who sent his personal aide D Srinivas to sort out the issue.
The units downed shutters, ironically on May Day, unable to extricate themselves from heavy financial losses. The decision left about 1,500 workers employed in these units without a job. However, in less than 24 hours, Rama Rao resolved the issues by sending a team of officials to hold talks with them which, by Monday evening bore fruit. The textile units’ owners have been demanding reimbursement of `14.66 crore pending for the last six years for which the officials told them that Rama Rao had consented to issue orders to this effect on Tuesday.
The other demands that the officials had conceded included looms’ modernisation and measures for the establishment of new units. The government will issue orders for the creation of a common facility centre.
With the government consenting to their demands, the owners of the textile units conveyed their gratitude to KTR and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. They even organised ksheerabhishekam to the flexis with the images of KCR and KTR at the Textile Park’s main gate.
Later, the Textile Park unit owners demanded that it was now the turn of the local MP and State BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar to ensure the waiver of five per cent GST on the textile sector. They also sought restoration of the 30 per cent subsidy for technology up-gradation which has been slashed to 10 per cent. They wanted the centre to set up a Yarn Bank, and resume the powerloom modernisation scheme on par with the State government. They wanted steps to scrap penalties on Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme imposed by the Centre.
In a nutshell
Textile units downed shutters on May 1 after being unable to free themselves from heavy financial losses
The decision left about 1,500 workers employed in these units without a job
But in less than 24 hours, KT Rama Rao resolved the issues by sending a team of officials to hold talks