Telangana govt to distribute 1 crore Bathukamma sarees

After delivering 1.20 crore national flags in a short span as part of Swatantra Bharata Vajrotsavalu, Handlooms Department is now gearing up for distribution of one crore Bathukamma sarees across the State.

The department officials are planning to commence the distribution exercise from September third week this year. Already, orders for manufacturing one crore sarees were placed with weavers and nearly 85 lakh sarees are ready.

These sarees were manufactured in Sircilla by over 20,000 powerloom weavers. Every day, about one lakh sarees would be manufactured to meet the deadline and a buffer stock of 3 lakh sarees was maintained to ensure there is no short supply, said a senior official from Handloom department.

Like previous years, special focus was laid on the saree designs. This year 17 different designs have been weaved in 17 different colours. Of the one crore, nearly 90 percent of the sarees are manufactured in Sircilla and the balance are done in Karimnagar.

Bathukamma the floral festival is expected to commence from September 25. The State



government has allocated Rs.330 crore for the annual distribution of the Bathukamma sarees.

Once the sarees manufacturing was completed in Sircilla, they would be transported to Hyderabad for finishing, sorting and packing. After formal approval from the State Government, they would be distributed to the districts, explained the official.

Generally, the district administration are given the option of distributing the sarees at the door steps of beneficiaries or at the Village Distribution Points (VDP), which could be school buildings, community halls or panchayats offices.

Since 2017, the State government has been annually distributing Bathukamma sarees to women, aged above 18 years. Accordingly, over 95 lakh sarees were distributed in 2017, 96.7 lakh in 2018, 96.5 lakh in 2019 and 96.24 lakh in 2020 and 96.38 lakh in 2021.

Apart from weavers, ancillary workers, including labourers, hamalis, auto drivers and even traders get benefited through the Bathukamma sarees orders placed by the government.