'Bathukamma' free sarees distribution starts; officials say no

The free distribution of over one crore sarees for women below the poverty line for the upcoming traditional 'Bathukamma' festival began today across Telangana.
The Telangana government had said about 1.04 crore women will be given saris free of cost. The scheme costs Rs 222 crore.
However, the saree distribution found itself in a row with the sarees allegedly being burnt over poor quality.
Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao told reporters here that the government targeted to distribute about 1.04 crore sarees at over 8,000 centres in the state.
About 25 lakh sarees were distributed on the first day today, he said.

Hitting out at opposition parties, he alleged that 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 said.
"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 sarees distribution programme, Commissioner Textiles Shailaja Rama Iyer, told reporters here today.
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 sarees distribution has been taken up