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Chiru strikes a chord with weavers

Staff Reporter

Vows to solve their problems and field BC (weaver) candidate from Sircilla

Chiranjeevi

SIRCILLA (KARIMNAGAR Dt.): Praja Rajyam founder Chiranjeevi said here on Saturday that he would constitute an expert committee to solve the problems of distressed powerloom weavers of Sircilla town in Karimnagar district.

The film-star turned politician visited the mandal, the first after he launched his party on August 26, to console the families of those weavers, who had committed suicide. Though he arrived at a short notice, there was overwhelming response from the people who turned up in large numbers.

At a meeting organised in a marriage hall on the outskirts of Sircilla, Mr. Chiranjeevi expressed concern over the spate of suicides by the weavers due to unemployment and starvation.

Noting that powerloom weavers were facing problems since the last 20 years, he said there were more than 400 suicides in Sircilla town alone during the last ten years. As many as 68 weavers ended their lives in 2007 and 35 this year.

He alleged that the government had provided ex-gratia of Rs 1.5 lakh to only 10 per cent of the bereaved families.

“Who is to be blamed for this crisis?” he asked. The weavers were migrating to Bhiwandi, Surat, Solapur and Ahmedabad in search of employment. “When the neighbouring States are providing them jobs, why doesn’t the State government give employment to these weavers in distress?” The Praja Rajyam leader observed that elected representatives of Sircilla were not striving for the weavers’ welfare. “In order to bring a change and raise the voice of weavers, I will field a BC (weaver) candidate from Sircilla Assembly segment in the elections,” he said amid applause,

Inspiration

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Chiranjeevi said the loom was an inspiration during the freedom struggle. “Now, the loom is lying idle. The life of a weaver is miserable and struck with a web of problems forcing him to commit suicide,” he said in an emotional vein. Chiranjeevi expressed concern over migration of rural youth to Gulf countries in search of employment and faulted the government for not taking effective measures to bring back the bodies of those killed in a fire in UAE last month.

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