Telangana handloom weavers send postcards to Prime Minister Modi and demand rollback of GST

Handloom weavers from Telangana sent lakhs of postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a reversal of the VAT imposed on handwoven products and their raw materials.

Lakh’s postcards demanded the reversal of the GST imposed on hand-woven products and its raw materials were sent to Prime Minister Modi. (India Today photo)

By Abdul Basheer: Lakhs of postcards written by Telangana handloom weavers were mailed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. The postcards asked the prime minister to reverse the five percent GST imposed on hand-woven products and their raw materials.

Before the postcards were deposited at the post office, thousands of handloom weavers and their supporters gathered on the grounds of Nizam College in Hyderabad. Then they went to the post office.

The weavers wrote the postcards in response to an appeal from the State Minister for Handlooms and Textiles, KT Rama Rao, who launched a campaign on Oct. 22 to demand a rollback of the GST. The campaign received massive response from weavers across the state.

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Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) L Ramana, ex-MLA Chinta Prabhakar, Guduri Praveen, the Chairman of the Textile Development Company Limited, Former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar and the Mayor of Warangal, Gundu Sudharani, participated in the program and the rally.

MLC Ramana addressed people gathered on the university grounds and demanded that the GST be rolled back. He also called on the Union government to reinstate plans for weavers that were being scrapped, including the ICICI Lombard Health Scheme and the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana.

He also said Prime Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has taken several measures to protect the handloom sector. These include Nethanna Ku Bima, Chenetha Mithra, Nethannaku Cheyutha and loan waivers to weavers.

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