Will bring back past glory to handlooms: Minister

Vijayawada: Minister for Backward classes, Handloom and Textiles S Savitha assured the handloom weavers here on Monday that the State government would strive to bring back past glory to the handloom sector.

She visited the APCO mega showroom at Governorpet here. Later, addressing the media, the Minister expressed concern over the plight of the handloom weavers and she witnessed the suicide of some weavers when they failed to fetch good price to their products.

She complimented the officials for running the mega showroom on par with the corporate showrooms. She said that there are 84 showrooms across the State and 16 showrooms in the neighbouring States. Efforts were on to improve the turnover by modernising the showrooms. She appealed to the people to buy handloom dress material to encourage the handloom weavers. “People should wear handloom dresses at least one day in a week,” she exhorted people. APCO vice-chairman and managing director R Pavan Murthy, general manager S Anuja Rani, showroom manager Y Gopalakrishna and staff were present.