Telangana govt's free saree drive takes an ugly turn, women ask KCR to give 'Rs 50' cloth to daughter

New Delhi: The Telangana government's free saree drive took an ugly turn on Monday as women were seen exchanging blows and pulling each other by the hair. The video aired by some local news channels showed a few women shoving and attacking one another with footwear. The footage which has gone viral on social media also featured a group of women, fighting near a counter distributing free sarees at Saidabad. The women burnt the sarees, alleging they were of poor quality and completely opposite from the promised handloom. 

Following the fight, women police personnel immediately intervened and separated the fighting women.

Watch video: 

Talking to NDTV, one of the protesting women said,"Instead of getting a good name, KCR is losing our respect by giving such sarees. Will his daughter Kavitha dance Bathukamma wearing such a saree? Instead of this show of generosity, they should give us our ration on time and ensure quality."

Another disappointed woman alleged that KCR is giving them saree worth Rs 50 only. "Even beggars don't wear such sarees and KCR is giving us this saree," the woman told a news portal. 

Reacting to the incident, Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao hit out at Opposition and said that the Congress leaders were behind the incident of burning the distributed sarees at places like Chalgal in Jagitial district.

"It is an utterly low-level politics to burn the sarees", he alleged.

"On the occasion of Bathukamma festival, all the poor women above the age of 18 will get sarees as a gift irrespective of caste, community or religion," Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had earlier said.

District Collectors of 31 districts in the state are overseeing the saree distribution programme, Commissioner Textiles Shailaja Rama Iyer, told reporters. 

She said power-loom weavers of Sircilla in the state have woven over 50 lakh sarees measuring up to 3.75 crore metres while remaining sarees have been procured from Surat after following open competitive tender process.

"There are over 500 designs of sarees which are being distributed. Polyester saree distribution has been taken up... we got feedback that cotton sarees should also be distributed and we are open to the feedback," she said.

Reacting to queries that some women complained and protested in few places over alleged poor quality of sarees, Iyer and Principal Secretary of the Industries Jayesh Ranjan said there is no compromise with regard to quality of sarees.

"We stand by the quality of the sarees. As per specifications the sarees have been produced and there is no problem at all," they claimed.

Iyer maintained that there is no quality issue with regard to sarees being distributed.

"Sarees are inspected and also tested and there is no such quality issue. If there is any specific problem on one or two sarees we have permitted replacement. If there is any specific issue on quality we will take up the matter," he said.

"Factories were also inspected. There are no quality issues in the sarees and I want to indicate that very clearly. We stand firm by the quality of the sarees that we have produced," Iyer said.

"If there is any specific quality issue with regard to specifications it can be brought our notice," added Iyer.

She said saree specifications of Surat are slightly different when compared to Sircilla.

Both Ranjan and Iyer dismissed the allegations that sarees priced at Rs 50 were distributed. They said each Sircilla saree is priced at Rs 224 while the Surat saree costs Rs 200. 

(With inputs from agencies)