Government to hold meet on weavers woes soon

The state government will shortly conduct a special meeting to discuss the problems of handloom weavers and work out a solution for them.

 Announcing it at a public meeting organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of Acharya Vinoba Bhave in Bhoodhan Pochampalle in Nalgonda district on Monday, chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said their grievances will be discussed at length and weavers from Pochampally will also participate in the meeting.

 The chief minister said he was requested for the development of NIMS. “The hospital will commence with 150 to 200 bed strength at the earliest and will be developed in a phased manner.  The government will allocate the required funds for its development,” he assured.

 He also assured of speedy completion of works pertaining to the Musi river sub-canals, Bunadhigani, Dharmareddy and Pillaipalle which were stalled due to lack of funds.

 “Our Indiramma Bata programme is based on Gandhian philosophy, whose relevance has even been acknowledged by the USA president Barack Obama. We are committed for the upliftment of scheduled castes and tribes, backward classes and minorities,” he said.

 Speaking on the occasion, Union health minister and AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad recounted that when Vinoba Bhave, a true Gandhian, had come to Pochampalle to address a meeting, several farmers met him and told that they had no food and land.

 “Explaining the plight of the farmers, Vinoba called upon the rich to donate him some land. Ramachandra Reddy was the first person to donate 100 acres to him after which others followed, and in a single day, 1000 acres of land was donated.

 The land was re-distributed among the poor. Later, Vinoba took a long walk to pool land for the farmers. What he did cannot be done by any government,” Azad said. Azad emphasised on the need of inculcating an attitude among the rich to serve the poor and needy. He recalled his association with Vinoba Bhave’s ashram in Nagpur on the occasion.

 Stating that it was not proper to speak politics at a meeting organised for remembering the great personality, he refrained from making any political statement, but assured that NIMS issue was discussed with officials concerned.

 Earlier, the chief minister and Union minister inaugurated a hostel block at the Swamy Ramananda Tirtha Rural Institute. The chief minister translated the students’ responses in English for Azad. They also laid foundation stone for a double lane road from Pochampalle to Kothagundem, to be laid with an outlay of Rs 6 crore.

 PCC chief B Satyanarayana, ministers V Sunita Lakshma Reddy, K Jana Reddy, N Raghuveera Reddy, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, former speaker Suresh Reddy, MPs G Sukendar Reddy and K Rajagopal Reddy, Bhongir MLA A Uma Madhava Reddy, MLCs and others were present.  The meeting was organised by the Gandhi Global Family.