A 'saree' state of affairs in Telangana: Women burn Bathukamma gifts to protest poor quality of fabric

Bathukamma is a festival celebrated by Hindu women in Telangana. A media report quoted one of the protesters as saying the sarees distributed by the Chandrashekhar Rao government were "not worth even for cleaning floors." Read on to learn more.

Ashish Pandey  | Edited by Ganesh Kumar Radha Udayakumar
Hyderabad, September 19, 2017 | UPDATED 18:05 IST
Sarees distributed on the occasion of Bathukamma (Photo: ANI)Sarees distributed on the occasion of Bathukamma (Photo: ANI)

Highlights

  • 1
    The protests took place in several districts
  • 2
    Mandal revenue officials said protesters charged at them with burning cloth
  • 3
    An Opposition leader alleged that there had been a Rs 150 crore scam

Women in several Telengana districts burned Bathukamma sarees distributed by the K Chandrashekhar Rao administration, embarrassing the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government. Their complaint? Poor cloth quality.

On the occasion of Bathukamma, a festival celebrated by Hindu women in Telangana, Chief Minister Rao's government will endeavour to distribute nearly 1.04 crore sarees to women aged 18 or above from families with white ration cards.

Distribution of these "gifts," worth around Rs 222 crore, began yesterday, and will end tomorrow.

But women protesting in Peddapalli, Jagtial, Jangaon, Yadadri, Bhaddadri, Khammam and even Hyderabad, were unhappy with the sarees they received. They'd been given low-price polyester sarees instead of cotton and handloom Pochampally products.

"It is not worth even for cleaning floors. KCR should not have taken up the scheme at all, rather than insulting us with the poor quality of sarees," the Hindustan Times quoted a woman as saying.

Mandal revenue officials in Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts filed a police complaint in which they alleged protesters had charged at them with burning sarees, and blocked the movement of road traffic.

'RS 150 CRORE SCAM'

The Opposition wasted no time in crying foul.

Revanth Reddy, the president of the Telugu Desam Party's Telangana unit, alleged there had been a whopping "Rs 150 crore scam."

Rao's government failed to provide information about tendering and procurement, Reddy alleged. He has called for a judicial enquiry.

"Telangana State Textiles Complex Co-Operative Society Limited, which is an allied organization of Telangana State Handloom Weavers Society (TSCO), gave an advertisement on July 10 in the English daily 'The Expression of Interest (EoI) for the task, stating that those who come before July 13 will be given the contract," Reddy told India Today.

"However, no one has turned up. What is more surprising is that no one knows about Telangana State Textiles Complex Co-Operative Society Limited in the state and its existence. So far what we have learnt is that this co-operative society has only security grads and watchmen as employees, but they floated a tender in a very suspicious manner."

There was more. Why did the Chandrashekhar Rao government source low-quality polyester sarees from Surat, when it had promised that Telangana's weavers would benefit from its initiative, Reddy asked.

GOVERNMENT'S DEFENSE

Urban Development and Handloom minister K Trak Ramarao, or 'KTR,' said the Opposition was politicizing the issue, and said a time constraint was behind the government's decision to outsource production.

"The decision was taken only three months ago, and there was a shortage of time, we had to split the order between our weavers and the Surat-based firms. While we procured about 53 lakh sarees from the weavers in Sircilla rest of them we procured from Surat " Rama Rao told reporters.

VIDEO: Ugly scenes were witnessed at a centre where sarees were distributed. (Video courtesy: TS Sudhir/Twitter)