Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Weavers not fully utilising schemes: Minister

Staff Reporter

In Chennimalai area, 1,010 houses built for them

FOCUS ON HEALTH: The Union Minister of State for Textiles, E.V.K.S. Elangovan (third from right), distributing insurance policy to weavers at a function held in Erode on Friday. The Handlooms and Textiles Minister, N.K.K.P. Raja (third from left), an d the Highways and Ports Minister, M.P. Saminathan (second from right), look on.

ERODE: "The State Government is ready to consider all the reasonable grievances of the handloom weavers with a view to uplift them, but the latter were not fully utilising several schemes," said the Handlooms and Textiles Minister, N.K.K.P. Raja, here on Friday while distributing medical relief fund and insurance certificates to weavers.

The Minister said a new insurance scheme called Mahatma Gandhi Pungar Bheema Yojana (Handloom Weavers Insurance Scheme) was introduced for which the annual premium would be Rs. 330.

Of this, the Union Government paid Rs. 150, LIC Rs. 100 and the remaining will be the beneficiary's contribution, but the State Government was depositing the amount on behalf of the weavers to the insurance company.

Members

The Minister said that in Erode district, 29,337 members of Weavers' Cooperative Societies and 7,182 weavers working in private looms were members.

Under the Health Insurance Scheme, for each Weaver the Union Government was granting Rs. 800 a year and the State Government Rs. 200.

The beneficiary and his family members could avail medical treatment totalling Rs. 15,000 a year. Due to lack of awareness many weavers were not availing medical assistance, he added.

Distributing welfare measures totalling Rs. 95 lakh, the Highways and Ports Minister, M.P. Saminathan, said that for the benefit of the weavers the Government had granted free power systems to weavers and was taking all efforts to increase the financial assistance for them. He said the decision to start handloom clusters at Appakudal and Thandampalayam would benefit the weavers there.

Tax waiver

The Director of Handlooms, Malik Ferozkhan, said that out of 6.63 lakh weavers in Tamil Nadu about two lakh had been included in the life insurance scheme and 1.92 lakh weavers in health insurance scheme. The waiver of 2 per cent tax on hank yarn was helpful to lakhs of weavers.

The Collector, D. Karthikeyan, said that in Chennimalai area already 1,010 houses for weavers had been built with work shed and handed over to them. MLAs R.M. Palanisamy, Vidiyal S. Sekar, K.V. Ramanathan and P. Gurusamy and Erode Municipal Chairman K. Kumar Murugesh spoke.

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