Hyderabad (The Hawk): On Monday, the Telangana handloom weavers sent thousands of postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The five percent GST levied on handloom products and their raw materials was requested to be repealed in the postcards to the prime minister.
Thousands of handloom weavers and their supporters gathered at Hyderabad's Nizam College grounds prior to the postcards being deposited at the post office. They then went on to organise a gathering near the post office.
The State Handlooms and Textiles Minister, KT Rama Rao, launched a campaign on October 22 calling for a rollback of the GST, and the weavers responded by creating the postcards. Weavers from all throughout the state responded enthusiastically to the campaign.
Participants in the programme and rally were L. Ramana, a member of the Legislative Council (MLC), ex-MLA Chinta Prabhakar, Guduri Praveen, the chairman of the Textile Development Corporation Limited, former Rajya Sabha MP Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar, and Warangal Mayor Gundu Sudharani.
MLC Ramana requested that the GST be repealed while speaking to the crowd gathering on the college grounds. He also urged the Union government to reinstate the weavers' benefit programmes that had been eliminated, such as the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana and the ICICI Lombard Health Scheme.
He added that K Chandrashekar Rao, the chief minister, had taken a number of steps to safeguard the handloom industry. These include loan forgiveness for weavers as well as Nethanna Ku Bima, Chenetha Mithra, and Nethannaku Cheyutha.
(Inputs from Agencies)