BJP secretary begins 3-day fast for weavers

HYDERABAD: The BJP has sent out a message loud and clear to the UPA government that top on its agenda will be the problems of handloom weavers across the country.BJP national secretary P Muralidhara Rao, who hails from Karimnagar district, has said the struggle for restoration of dignity and decent living standards for weavers across the nation has only begun.The BJP leader, who began his three-day hunger strike at Indira Park here on Wednesday to draw the nation’s attention to the plight of weavers, demanded an answer from the Congress, which stakes claim to the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi who used charkha as his instrument to promote nationalism, as to why were the weavers going through an agonising ordeal.On Friday, Rao will call off his hunger strike which symbolises the beginning of the BJP’s struggle for a better deal for weavers. BJP president Nitin Gadkari will visit his fast camp on that day.There are 3.2 lakh handlooms in the state and about five lakh families are dependent on weaving directly and 20 lakh people indirectly. “My hunger strike is only the beginning of efforts to press the UPA government to come up with a policy to protect handloom weavers from the onslaught of mill sector. The BJP wants weavers to be protected from textile mills. For this, amendments have to be made to the relevant Acts,” he said, adding: “Weavers need help from the government in the form of interest-free loans and infrastructure facilities. Their minimum needs should be taken care of.”He described the `6,000 crore package announced by the UPA for weavers as jugglery of figures and aimed at political gains in view of the forthcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh. “A part of the package is meant to help the banks which had advanced loans and the rest is the money that has to be allocated in the next Five Year Plan. The weavers have no bank accounts and they have not taken any loans from banks. They borrowed from local moneylenders at an interest rate of 36 per cent. This is the area where the UPA should concentrate if it really wants to help weavers,” he said.Recalling the glorious past of weavers, the BJP leader said they had brought name and fame to the country. “Names like Pochampalli, Venkatagiri, Dharmavaram and Gadwal are known all over the world because of the extraordinary skills of the weavers there,” he said and wondered how the government could remain unruffled when the weavers were unable to earn even `25 after working for 24 hours.Rao said AP ranked first in the number of weaver suicides and starvation deaths in the country. “The official figure of suicides is only 700 but we have information that the deaths were more than 2,000 during the last 15 years. As regards starvation deaths, the number would be nearly 25,000,” he said.Madhya Pradesh industry and employment minister Kailash Vijayvargiya said the BJP government in his state had taken the responsibility of selling abroad the Maheshwari saris woven by local weavers. The governments in AP and other states too should do this. This apart, the MP government had provided several benefits including insurance cover to the entire family.Former Union minister Santosh Gangwar, BJP state resident G Kishan Reddy, BJP senior leaders Bandaru Dattatreya, N Indrasena Reddy and others spoke.