The much-hyped “Bathukamma Saree” scheme of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has smacks of a big scam, if one were to go by the criticism of the opposition parties.
At several places in Telangana, women who stood in queues for several hours expressed strong dissatisfaction over the poor quality of sarees.
“We have foregone daily wage of over Rs 400 to stand in queues for getting Bathukamma sarees. But we were thoroughly disappointed over the quality of the polyester saree, which does not cost even Rs 50-Rs 60 each. It is not worth even for cleaning floors. KCR should not have taken up the scheme at all, rather than insulting us with this poor quality of sarees,” a woman said.
At Jagitial, women staged protests against supplying poor quality sarees by burning them on road within hours of distribution of Bathukamma sarees.
Even the women in Bhongir too are reported to have thrown the sarees on the road and played Bathukamma around them.
The women stated that after being promised Gadwal sarees, they were handed over Rs 100 sarees.
According to Telugu Desam Party legislator A Revanth Reddy, the government had fooled the woman saying that each saree would cost around Rs 200, but what was distributed to them was a saree worth not even Rs 50.
“Obviously, it is a big scam. It looks like the authorities purchased polyester sarees in bulk from Surat merchants on weighing basis and distributed the same in attractive packets with KCR image. The remaining amount was pocketed by the ruling party leaders,” he alleged.
