Bathukamma festivities: One crore sarees to be distributed from today

The Telangana government will begin distribution of sarees to women on Monday . Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has directed officials to distribute nearly 1.04 crore sarees worth `222 crore to eligible women from families with white ration cards or those falling in the BPL category .

The sarees will be distributed from Sept 18 to 20. Of the total 1,04,47,610 sarees, around 52 lakh were procured from weavers in Telangana, mainly Sircilla. Due to shortage of time since the plan was formulated, the remaining sarees were procured from Surat in Gujarat and other cities that are popular for textiles.

Officials said that the order given by



the government provided work for more than two-and-half months to weavers in Sircilla and gave them a business of over `70 crore. From next year, the state government will procure all the sarees from weavers in Telangana only .

Sarees in various colours and with over 500 designs have already reached the distribution centres. Women officials from the CMO were given the job of selecting the sarees that will suit the taste of women in the state. Commissioner of textiles Sailaja Ramaiyyer led the team of officials that procured the sarees. Special distribution centres have been set up in rural and urban areas of the state.