With only four months left for the Pongal festival, power loom owners in the district have urged the State government to supply yarn at the earliest so that manufacturing free dhotis and saris could be completed on time.

The State government releases orders for making dhotis and saris in August every year after which yarn is supplied by the cooperative societies in Erode, Salem, Namakkal and Tiruvannamalai to the power loom units in the respective districts. In the current year, about 1.67 crore dhotis and saris are to be manufactured for distributing it freely to the ration card holders for Pongal.

There are 55,000 power loom units in the district of which 25,000 units produce free dhotis and saris while others produce rayon fabric and cotton fabric. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the units were closed in March and resumed its operations in July adhering to personal distancing norms and also to operate only from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Owners said that they expect yarn to be distributed to the societies in the coming week after which they will be receiving it and starting the production.

L.P. Balasubramanian, secretary, Lakkapuram Power Loom Owners’ Association, told The Hindu that two-third of the workers in the industry lost their jobs due to restriction in operating during night hours. “Manufacturing will take four months and we wanted the orders to be released at the earliest so that workers could also be arranged”, he said.