The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Weavers accuse Government of diverting funds

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Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Weavers accuse Government of diverting funds

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Handloom Weavers Congress (INTUC) has accused the LDF Government of diverting funds sanctioned by the Centre for the revival and development of the traditional handloom industry.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, State president of the organisation V.S. Hareendranath and general secretary Vandannoor Sadasivan said the policies pursued by the Government, cooperative banks and Hantex would put handloom cooperative societies in the State in a crisis. This would affect lakhs of handloom weavers and employees who depend on the societies for a living.

They said Hantex was yet to clear the arrears due to handloom cooperative societies for textile materials supplied since 1992. "During this period, Hantex incurred operational loss of Rs.125 crore," they said.

Mr. Hareendranath accused the district cooperative banks of fleecing the societies by levying heavy interest. "The banks take loans from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) at 6 per cent and lend them to societies at 22 per cent interest." He said the societies were seriously hampered by the Government's insistence on routing all assistance through the district banks.

Mr. Hareendranath urged the Government to implement the Handloom Park project at Balaramapuram and take up the Rs.80-crore Thanima scheme launched by the previous UDF regime.

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