Telangana Minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Monday convened a meeting with APCO, Tribal Welfare, BC Welfare, Rajiv Vidya Mission , MJPTSWEIS, to discuss on the issues of the dues pertaining to the APCO.
Tribal Welfare Principal Secretary G.D. Aruna and Commissioner E.B.D. Ekka also took part in the meeting. The meeting was essentially held to review the dues which are to be paid to APCO from 2001-2015. which is to tune of Rs. 113 Crores, while the receivable are tune of Rs. 113 crores the net payable to the societies is Rs 21 Crores.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Tribal Welfare departments have promised to pay the arrears by 10.09.2015. The SC and BC Welfare departments have also agreed to clear the arrears, The Minister instructed APCO to pay the dues to the APCO societies of Telangana on top priority. The Minister was shocked to see that the arrears accumulated over 15 years and not much was done by the department to collect the dues. He instructed the department not to be complacent and act swiftly to collect the dues so that the weavers will not suffer.
The Minister was of the view that the weavers should not suffer due to the internal problems between the departments and that the weavers should be paid that the dues at the earliest as they are working on a meagre daily wage. He informed the officials that during the National Handloom day which was celebrated recently a lot of weavers had put their plight across him, and that their earnings was not enough for them to have three proper meals a day, they were into heavy debts as they were not receiving payments. He was moved by their plight and promised to address their issues and wanted to create awareness as well as demand and had told them to tie up with NIFT and other dress designers as well as fashion houses, He wanted them to sell online also with the help of online portals.
The Minister wanted the department to create more demand for weavers by adding Bags, Ties, and other accessories to the already existing towels, bedsheets, carpets, blankets, socks apart from uniforms. Telangana State has stocks of 150 Crores.
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan EC meeting is going to take place on 31st August wherein the payment procedure would be decided. The Minister has evinced interest and informed that he will attend the meeting.
The Minister instructed the MD APCO to maintain separate accounts for Telangana state. He said that he would hold a review meeting to assess the progress. (INN)