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Revanth seeks probe into Bathukamma sari scheme
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Legislature Party Leader Revanth Reddy has alleged that the middlemen cornered up to Rs 150 crore in wholesale purchase of saris in Surat for Bathukamma festival. He demanded a probe by a sitting judge into the irregularities.
Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Legislature Party Leader Revanth Reddy has alleged that the middlemen cornered up to Rs 150 crore in wholesale purchase of saris in Surat for Bathukamma festival. He demanded a probe by a sitting judge into the irregularities.
Addressing a media conference at the State Legislative Assembly here on Monday, following women expressing ire over the quality of the saris distributed, he observed that the Siricilla weavers have no capacity to produce seven crore meters of cloth needed for 1.04 crore saris in two months.
At the most, Siricilla weavers can produce only one crore meters of cloth, that too with great difficulty, as was evident at the time of supplying uniforms to school children under the Rajiv Vidya Mission. He disputed the State government’s claim of procuring 52 lakh out of 1.04 crore saris from Siricilla weavers.
When the TDP enquired about the quality of the saris from textile traders of Surat, they confirmed that the saris were of poor quality sold by weight. They put the price of the saris as Rs 250 a kg. Six saris constitute one kg. Therefore, inference can be drawn that the cost of each sari would not be more than Rs 60 including transportation costs. But the government claims the cost of each sari to be at least Rs 224.
At this rate, the middle men might have cornered at least Rs 150 a sari. On the whole, he put the total amount embezzled was at Rs 150 crore.
He came down heavily on the government officials for not furnishing the information he sought on saris under the RTI and for playing hide and seek with him. Suspecting something fishy, Revanth Reddy reiterated his demand for a probe into the scandal by a sitting judge.
He alleged that the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is making a mockery of the poverty of the beneficiaries by trying to pass off polyester saris purchased by weight in Surat as those woven by weavers of Siricilla.
He quoted the instances of women consigning saris to flames at Peddapalli and Jagityal. In the name of Bathukamma gifts, KCR insulted women of the State by giving them inferior quality saris, he added. He called upon TDP activists to undertake demonstrations at all places in the State displaying the Bathukamma saris.
