The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Two weavers end their life in Karimnagar

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Friday, Oct 03, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Two weavers end their life in Karimnagar

N. Rahul

A handloom worker and two others of powerloom sector died on Wednesday

Counselling centre-cum-helpline launched
Weavers seek pensions for the aged, handicapped

HYDERABAD: Two weavers died in Karimnagar district on Thursday, even as Collector Sandeep Sultania launched a counselling centre-cum-helpline for the distressed weavers.

One weaver in the crisis-ridden Sircilla town ended his life while another committed suicide at Garshakurthi of Gangadhara mandal.

Galipalli Laxman (55) was found hanging from a tree in the bushes at an isolated place leading to Manair stream behind Shirdi Saibaba temple.

Sircilla Sub-Inspector Samala Upender said that Laxman, a powerloom worker, had not been working for the last eight months as he was suffering from tuberculosis. He left his house at Ganeshnagar around 10 a.m. and was found dead in the afternoon.

At Garshakurthi, P. Raju (35) committed self-immolation unable to make both ends meet. Police said he was employed at a handloom unit until recently.

Following its closure, he was learning tailoring.

The death toll of weavers in Sircilla following Laxman’s hanging has gone up to 19, including 11 cases of suicide, in the last one month.

A handloom worker and two others of powerloom sector died on Wednesday.

At the counselling centre inaugurated by the Collector at B.Y. Nagar, a locality in Sircilla thickly inhabited by weavers, the community poured out its woes of poverty and sufferings on the health front. The centre will be run by an NGO, Krushi.

The weavers appealed to the Collector to release pensions for the aged and the handicapped.

Moving story

The story of a family whose breadwinner, Davanapalli Gangaram, died of illness on Wednesday moved the residents of B.Y. Nagar.

They pooled money to perform his last rites. Gangaram is survived by wife Lata, who bears a huge patch of burns sustained on her neck, and two children. The family shifted to Sircilla from their native Bhiwandi in Maharashtra a year ago.

Incidentally, a number of weavers from Sircilla who had migrated to Bhiwandi, a town well known for powerlooms, have returned.

Lata said the weavers did not find employment in Bhiwandi as power was available for only eight hours a day.

Moreover, the wages in Sircilla were higher and the power position more comfortable.

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