The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : 50 cr. sanctioned to bail out APCO

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

50 cr. sanctioned to bail out APCO

By Our Staff Reporter

CUDDAPAH, SEPT. 7. The Government is determined to bail out the crisis-ridden handloom sector and assured sanction of Rs. 50 crores to procure APCO clothes, asserted the APCO Chairman, B. Chandra Nageswara Rao, on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference here, he said APCO had targeted a sales turnover of Rs. 100 crores this year as against a business of Rs. 80 crores transacted last year. APCO cloth stocks worth Rs. 25 crores were piled up in the State including that of Rs. 2.24 crores with weavers' cooperative societies in Cuddapah district. The Government had agreed to sanction Rs. 50 crores to procure APCO cloth, as against Rs. 100 crores requisitioned, he said.

Order bagged

APCO has bagged an order of Rs. 35 crores to supply cloth to the Social Welfare, BC Welfare and ST Welfare departments in 2004-05, the Chairman stated. A Rs. 25-crore order to supply cloth to the Railways was in the pipeline, he added. APCO earned a net profit of Rs. 2.50 crores during 2003-04 by taking austerity measures, improving sales and striving to curb losses.

Wages hiked

Mr. Nageswara Rao said the wages of handloom workers were hiked from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, dying charges were increased besides prompt supply of hank yarn to weavers and making payments due to them within a month. Free eye camps were being held for weavers and spectacles supplied to the needy.

APCO Directors - Vemana Viswanatha Raju (Vizianagaram), Jalla Biksham (Nalgonda) and Kalisetty Bhoomeswar (Nizamabad) - and Cuddapah divisional Marketing Officer, Subbaramaiah and assistant marketing officer, J.V. Subbaiah, participated.

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