TN govt releases Rs 100 cr installment for free veshti, sarees during Pongal 2025

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday announced that an allocation of Rs 100 crore has been made for the distribution of free dhotis and sarees for the Pongal festival in 2025. The government has also issued orders to manufacture veshtis and sarees as part of the scheme.

Dharmendra Pratap Yadav, Principal Secretary of the state handloom department, on August 27, issued orders in principle for the implementation of the scheme during Pongal 2025.

The order directed powerloom weavers and cooperative societies to undertake the production of the required sarees and veshtis within a stipulated time frame, to guarantee timely delivery for the festival.

The order also accorded sanction for Co-optex, the State-owned handloom cooperative, to procure sarees and veshtis manufactured by handloom and pedalloom manufacturers throughout the year and distribute them to the beneficiaries of the Old Age Pension scheme.

The order which appointed the director of the handloom department also stated that the scheme’s requirements for 2024 (1.77 crore sarees and 1.77 crore veshtis) shall be fixed as the tentative target for the scheme’s implementation in 2025.

The revised production target shall be fixed based on the district-wise requirement list provided by the Commissioner of Revenue Administration after the joint review by the Project Director of Social Security, the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, the Commissioner of Food and Civil Supplies, and the Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation.

As per the GO, free veshtis and sarees would be distributed to ration card holders on verification and registration of their biometric data at the fair price shops.

In the case of Old Age Pension beneficiaries without ration cards, the state government has empowered the authorities to identify such beneficiaries and distribute free veshtis and sarees to them on verification of their Aadhaar biometric or retinal scan data.

Going by the GO, which prescribed specifications for the free veshtis and sarees scheme, the width and length of the powerloom sarees must be 115 cm and 5.50 metres respectively, and the saree border must measure 2.5 inches.

For veshtis, the department has prescribed 50 inches (127 cm) of width, 3.75 meters of length, and a one-inch border.

The GO also provided for sanctioning Rs 100 crore as the first installment and sanctioning the demanded sum in the future at an appropriate time based on the scheme’s progress report.