Petition submitted to District Collector
Urging the district administration to fix the price of yarn once in a month instead of twice a day, members of Erode Vhisaithari Urimayalargal Sangam (Erode Power Loom Owners Association) submitted petition to the Collector here on Monday.
Major sector
The petition said that power loom industry was a major sector in the district next to agriculture and over 30,000 looms were functioning at Veerappanchatiram, Chithode, Lakkapuram and other areas.
Most of the looms produced materials using rayon yarn that was purchased from companies.
Though the cost of raw materials for making rayon yarn was fixed once in a month, these companies hiked the price of yarn twice a day and also depending upon the demand.
“The price of yarn had increased from Rs. 202 per kg to Rs. 224 per kg in the past 15 days,” the members said.
They wanted the price of yarn to be fixed monthly so that the sector that provided job to over one lakh workers would survive.
They also wanted the textile cooperative mills to import rayon yarn and supply it directly to the power loom owners so that they need not purchase the yarn at higher price from private mills.
Reservation
The members said that modern looms were currently used for producing garments and hence they wanted reservation of articles for production in power looms. “Like handlooms, only if reservation is introduced for power looms, the sector will survive the competition from modern looms,” they added.
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