Polyester fabric production almost came to a standstill in the textile hub of Sircilla with most of the powerloom units in the town remaining shut due to lack of orders and accumulated stocks of unsold cloth in warehouses.
An overwhelming majority of the nearly 30,000 powerloom units in Sircilla have suspended operations from Monday following the decision of the Sircilla Polyester Cloth Manufacturing Welfare Association to close down the units under “unavoidable circumstances.”
The Association representing the polyester cloth manufacturing units attributed the current grim situation to lack of private orders mainly from Hyderabad, slump in prices due to weakened demand and piled up stock of unsold cloth.
The distressed owners of the units and thousands of powerloom workers are pinning their hopes on the fresh government orders such as RVM uniform clothes and Bathukamma sarees to the Sircilla-based powerloom units for resumption of operation of the closed units at the earliest.
Official sources said that the government agencies concerned are likely to place bulk orders for supply of school uniform cloth in a couple of days.
Meanwhile, former minister and Sircilla MLA K T Rama Rao took to X (formerly Twitter) saying the homegrown talented powerloom weavers of Sircilla have seen great growth and expansion since the formation of Telangana with the active support of the State government.
“My request to the Congress government to continue and strengthen the sector more as it has the potential to grow and compete with Tirupur cluster in Tamil Nadu. Hearing stories of distress setting in yet again which can be disastrous for the sector,” he added.
