GARSHAKURTHI (Karimnagar): Powerloom weavers of Garshakurthi village, famous for weaving polyester cloth, cotton sarees and towels, are in a quagmire.Plummeting yarn rates and pressure from bankers to pay back loans have pushed them into a severe crisis. Garshakurthi is located 25 km away from the district headquarters and is known for textile trading and manufacturing, apart from the textile town of Sircilla. With the government failing to provide financial assistance through any of the welfare schemes to about 800 weavers’ families, they have become totally dependent on cloth weaving.In the last four years, six weavers from the village committed suicide unable to run their families due to financial backwardness.Weavers had obtained loans worth `35 lakh from banks and are not in a position to clear them.However, bankers have served notices to them that if weavers fail to clear their loans, they would seize their powerloom units. “If our units are seized, we would not be able to pay back the loan amount.This would leave only with one option, which is suicide,” explains Maskat Narayana, a 70-year-old powerloom weaver.To worsen the situation, the steep fall in yarn prices from `1,600 to `700 for a 5-kg yarn box is causing severe hardships to weavers.As a result, weavers’ children are dropping out of schools because they are unable to pay the school fee.Instead, these children are joining their parents or family members in the weaving business and helping them get out of the quandary. Weavers now demand that the government waive their loans in a fashion similar to that of the farmers and also ensure Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards for them.They also urge the government to provide marketing facility for their produce and to re-schedule loans with the ‘Pavala Vaddi’ scheme.According to Vavilala Ramaswamy, a weaver, he had taken a loan of `35,000 from Deccan Grameena Bank but could not clear it.“The loan gradually doubled and now, the bank authorities are harassing me to pay the debt immediately.At this juncture, only the government can come to our rescue,” he said. Bankers, however, have a different say.According to Narasimha Chary, manager of Deccan Grameena Bank, they have been asking weavers to take loans for their business.“We are not pressuring weavers to clear their loans.But the problem is, we have to recover loans worth `20 lakh which is why there is pressure on us to make weavers clear the debts,” he added.Another weaver, Mittapally Bhadraiah, says that a daily-wage worker earns a meagre amount of `100 after working for eight long hours during the day.“Will the amount suffice a person’s needs when the prices of essential commodities are spiralling?,” he questions and adds that even he is unable to repay his debts as he and other weavers are reeling under losses. Yadagiri, manager of SBH, Gangadhara, said: “we have issued notices to weavers requesting them to pay back the loan amount.But, we have stopped issuing loans to weavers because we have to recover `10 lakh worth amount from them.” This apart, the power crisis in the state has only worsened their state.
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