Women feel insulted, set Bathukamma sarees on fire

Kothagudem: Women from various parts of the town and also those in Kothagudem, Illendu, Bhadrachalam and other towns, staged protests here on Monday against the poor quality of Bathukamma sarees given to them by the State government.

A few women of Shilpi Nagar in Bhadrachalam had burnt the Bathukamma sarees on the road, protesting against the cheap quality of the sarees.

Expressing anger over the inferior quality sarees, the irate woman said that they skipped work and had to forego their daily wages to collect the sarees.

They said that each saree would cost only Rs 50, which was of very cheap quality. “We lost our daily earnings of Rs 300 for this saree worth Rs 50,” they lamented. Instead of cheap quality sarees, it would have been better if the government gives us rice or dal, they observed.

They lashed out at Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for failing to give them the promised handloom sarees. They said they have been insulted in the name of free gifts on the occasion of Bathukamma celebrations.

Ironically, women were seen standing in serpentine queues for collecting Bathukamma gifts.