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Journalism of Courage
None dare upstage Amma even in benevolence in Tamil Nadu. Having decided to make her way to the hearts of starving weavers in Tamil Nadu through their stomachs, Jayalalithaa now has them by their throats. She decides what goes down it 8212; her biryani, not the DMK8217;s gruel 8212; and that the hand that feeds them is definitely the AIADMK8217;s. After a clash between the two parties at a relief programme for weavers in Madurai yesterday, DMK men find themselves charged with attempt to murder. The AIADMK men got out scotfree.
So where does that leave the weavers, apart from being unwilling witnesses to a drama that has already gone beyond them. In Tiruchi8217;s Woraiyur area, they are practically starving, without work for the past month and with moneylenders knocking down their doors. In Ammayarkuppam, they8217;re choking on Jayalalithaa8217;s biryani and asking when will she follow it up with something more substantial 8212; like timely and adequate yarn distribution, early procurement and proper wage distribution.
Vallimma 40, who runs a handloom weaving unit in her thatched hut, says they haven8217;t had any job for three months and that her husband was now running a tea shop. 8216;8216;Even if we get yarn, it would take not less than a week to begin actual production as there are three stages of processing before making it fit for weaving. What will we do to make both ends meet in the intervening period?8217;8217;
The weavers want the government to consider giving some cash advances so that they can keep their households running till they get wages. Of the total wages for weaving, 60 per cent is given in cash and the rest as yarn.
Former president of Woraiyur Devanga Weavers8217; Cooperative Society P. Rathinavelu laments numbers have dwindled from 450 to less than 150 now due to poor returns.
While Tiruchi weavers were not employed under free dhoti/sari scheme, official sources say 20 of 30 weaver cooperatives in the district, covering 4,425 looms, are no longer working. When free dhoti/sari scheme was withdrawn, looms which handled the orders earlier were given alternative work. However, here weavers say they are saddled with stock worth Rs 15 lakh which they can8217;t get rid of.
Worse, recently the state dumped eight bales of poor-quality yarn with the Tiruchi society, which it couldn8217;t refuse as it was from mills in Andipatti, Jayalalithaa8217;s constituency. Weavers say private firms refused to accept it for warping due to its poor quality.
Yarn is also otherwise a problem as rules stipulate it should be bought from Co-optex, and weavers say its prices are higher than in the open market.
Tiruchi weavers say instead of 8216;8216;insulting8217;8217; a hardworking lot like them with free food, Jayalalithaa should release various pending subsidies amounting to Rs 3 lakh and the rebate due to them, estimated at another Rs 4 lakh. Even their old age pensions do not come through on time, with officials demanding money to speed up files. Some weavers say that when insurance money ranging from Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 was paid to them recently, officials made a cool Rs 500 from each beneficiary.
Still, despite all this, the weavers couldn8217;t have dreamed that when help came, it would come in this form. That the AIADMK would set up biryani counters because the DMK was distributing gruel, and that the functionaries of the two parties would fight for credit on who heard the churning of their stomachs first.
S.M. Dharuman, president of Ammayarkuppam panchayat and a local AIADMK functionary, claims he and some other weavers have been taking up the cause since April with Jayalalithaa. And it was because of this Rs 79-lakh worth of saris had been procured from societies in an around Ammayarkuppam. Others point out that the orders went to a particular society with which Dharuman is associated.
S.R. Ramalingam, a senior DMK functionary, says if Co-optex had given some orders, it was mainly due to their president M. Karunanidhi8217;s proposed visit later cancelled to Ammayarkupam on August 6 to distribute gruel to the weavers.
Indeed, Karunanidhi8217;s plan, announced on August 2, set off a flurry of action that local AIADMK MLA and Chief Government Whip P.M. Narasimhan got involved, along with officials. The next day, 65,000 saris worth Rs 79 lakh was procured, and interestingly all were cleared by one technical supervisor vou-ching for sari quality. Money was distributed overnight to societies, and yarn too.
The AIADMK8217;s plan was no sari should be left out when Karunanidhi visited the village. He never came and now, after the clash yesterday, the weaver relief programme has been put on hold in Madurai.
