Common Service Centre for weavers to come up at Rs 98.45 lakhs

Replying to the debate on grants of his ministry, Manian announced a Rs 98.45 lakh common service centre for weavers to pay EB and water bills and cooperative dues. He allotted Rs 25 lakh for technical textile to conduct skill development for weavers. 

The minister said that Rs 2 crore was allotted to modernise the Co-optex’s Thillayadi Valliammai building at Egmore and Rs 75 lakh to modernise cooperative Loom World sales points in Chennai and Coimbatore. 

Manian also said that modernisation of cooperative sales show rooms in Tiruchy, Tiruvannamalai, and Thoothukudi would be undertaken at a cost of Rs 2 crore. He also said that the waiting period for loans from weavers’ cooperatives has been lowered from 10 years to 5 years and demand based weaving of eco-friendly ‘Ahimsa’ silk and weaving of cotton saris with natural dyes are on at Madamedu in Tiruchy and Vadambacheri in Coimbatore.  

Elaborating, he said that Rs 490.45 crore was allotted for the free sari/dhoti scheme for the current financial year, while another Rs 80 crore was sanctioned as subsidy for Co-optex in the same period. Under Jayalalithaa’s free power scheme for weavers, Rs 1.68 crore was sanctioned for handloom weavers and Rs 405.21 crore for power looms in the current financial year. 

Under the Union governments’ Mudra Loan scheme Rs 12.08 crore was allotted to 2,428 weavers in the current financial year.

The lone IUML MLA, who won on the AIADMK’s Two Leaves symbol walked out of the Assembly on Thursday with the DMK and the Congress. The MLAs said that the reply given by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on the bribe for gutka sale issue was not satisfactory.

Speaker P Dhanapal allowed the Leader of Opposition MK Stalin to raise the issue. When Stalin started speaking, the Speaker called on the Chief Minister to reply, to which the DMK leader said that EPS could reply only after he had raised the issue. Stalin continued his speech, but in a few minutes, Dhanapal intervened again. Congress leader KA Ramasamy demanded to know what action was taken on banned products being sold in the state and asked, “Why did speaker Dhanapal not initiate action on the complaint. It is still possible to opt for a CBI or a judicial inquiry.” 

The Chief Minister then read out a statement where he said that the Chennai police commissioner in a letter dated December 22, 2016, informed the state home secretary that anti-socials aided by police officials were preparing and selling the banned mava and gutka. The state had directed the letter to the director of vigilance on January 23, 2017, and the matter was now under investigation, he added. 

Expressing dissatisfaction over the reply, DMK, led by Stalin, Congress and IUML’s Abubackar staged a walkout. Stalin later told the media that former commissioner George wrote the letter to save himself. Demanding dismissal of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and suspension of DGP TK Rajendran and former commissioner T George, he demanded a CBI inquiry as top officials were involved.