AP CM disburses financial assistance to weavers

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday disbursed Rs 194 crore financial assistance to 80,686 handloom weavers as part of the ‘YSR Nethanna Nestham’ schme at Venkatagiri in Tirupati district.

The eligible beneficiaries received an annual assistance of Rs 24,000 under the scheme which is aimed at making the weaver families owning looms self-reliant.

“Until now we disbursed Rs 1.20 lakh each into the accounts of eligible weavers. With this scheme alone, Rs 970 crore has been disbursed to weavers in these five years,” Reddy said after distributing the assistance for the fifth year.

Besides ‘YSR Nethanna Nestham’, the Chief Minister noted that an amount of Rs 1,397 crore has disbursed towards weavers’ pension and Rs 469 crore to APCO (the Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society Ltd), which also included the clearing pending arrears from the previous government.

Meanwhile, Reddy claimed that weavers faced problems under the TDP regime with some of them dying by suicide.

He alleged that the TDP government didn’t even think about helping the families of 77 weavers who committed suicide.

Reddy further said after he became the Chief Minister, the government gave a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to those 77 families, Reddy asserted.