The Hindu Business Line : Textile forum seeks Govt’s help to tide over power crisis

A meeting of various textile trade bodies held on Wednesday in the handloom town of Karur under the aegis of Karur Textile Forum has voiced concern over rising cotton, yarn prices and the difficult power situation in the State.

The meeting in which representatives of diverse textile trade bodies from Salem, Erode, Nagarcoil and Dindigul, besides those from Karur attended, felt the shortage of raw material apart from the disruption in power situation and the prevailing labour shortage have added to the input cost escalation being felt across the entire textile value chain.

The meeting, according to Mr Sivakannan, President, Karur Textile Forum, has urged the Centre to step in to check raw cotton exports to ensure the domestic textile producers are not put into hardship.

The handloom and power-loom weavers are also hit by the rising cotton yarn prices which, Mr Sivakannan claimed, have escalated by up to 30 per cent in the past few weeks. The grid power supply continued to remain erratic hitting badly the working of the State’s textile clusters. The industry wanted the State Government to urgently initiate measures to stabilise the power supply and save the textile sector.

The members also demanded urgent measures from the Centre, including banning the raw cotton exports and raising the duty drawback rate to compensate the input cost escalation for the textile and garment exporters.

Plans industry bandh

Today’s meeting, originally called to chalk out an action plan to highlight the issues, however, came short of finalising the mode of protest – state-wide textile industry bandh or a hunger strike. It has chosen to form an eight member sub-committee comprising representatives of various textile clusters which, according to the organisers of the meeting, to decide the date of agitation.

More Stories on : Textiles | Power | Karnataka

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