The textile town of Sircilla, home to 30,352 power looms, is buzzing with activity with thousands of powerloom workers and members of weavers’ mutually aided cooperative societies racing against time to make and deliver lakhs of national flags to their clients from within the State and across the country ahead of Independence Day.
The Har Ghar Tiranga campaign aims to encourage all citizens to hoist the national flag in their homes from August 13 to 15 to mark 75 years of India’s Independence.
Sircilla, popularly known as Solapur of Telangana, famous for its glorious weaving traditions and rich craftsmanship of its weavers, is flooded with orders from more than half a dozen States for production of national flags worth crores.
The lion’s share of the orders came from the Telangana State Handloom Weavers ‘ Cooperative Society Limited (TSCO).
The TSCO has procured 64 lakh metres of polyester cloth worth around ₹7 crore from as many as 41 mutually aided cooperative societies (MACS)/small scale industries (SSI) of Sircilla and dispatched the fabric to the processing units.
The TSCO has placed an order with Shivashakti MACS of Sircilla to stitch a total of 51.52 lakh national flags for supply to all the districts under “Har Ghar Tiranga” programme. The MACS has dispatched a little over 6 lakh flags to the TSCO till Wednesday.
This apart, four other stitching units of the textile town executed orders from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and various other States, by delivering 15.50 lakh flags till date, sources said.
Some big powerloom units reportedly bagged bulk orders from various agencies and private firms across the country to produce around two crore national flags and deliver the flags by this weekend.
These units are working on a war footing in coordination with screen printing, dyeing, processing and stitching units to deliver the finished products within the stipulated time frame, sources added.
“We are working tirelessly to meet the deadline and dispatch the flag consignments to the clients in time,” says Raju, a powerloom weaver of Nehrunagar in Sircilla.
It is a matter of pride to be associated with making the national tricolour on this special occasion of the country’s 75 years of Independence.
“My whole family including my septuagenarian mother Lakshmi is also involved in the process of making the national flag along with my other family members,” he adds, noting that his mother is adept at stitching fabric.
Sircilla is endowed with gifted handloom weavers like Nalla Vijay, who brought laurels to the textile town by weaving a saree that can fit into a matchbox, notes Bhaskar, another weaver of Rajivnagar.
There are more than 30,000 powerlooms in the textile town with thousands of powerloom and other allied workers. This is what makes Sircilla a natural choice for customers when it comes to placing bulk orders on special occasions, he asserts referring to the regular contribution of weavers of Sircilla to the large-scale production of Bathukamma sarees and school uniforms for various government departments every year.
The handwoven khadi national flag represents the pride of the country, national integration and the rich Gandhian legacy, says National Weavers’ United JAC chairman Dasu Suresh.
Khadi flags deserve due importance at a time when the country is celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, he suggests.
The agencies entrusted with the task of making the national flags of the size of 30 inches x 20 inches are working round the clock in a mission mode to complete it by August 10, says M Sagar, Assistant Director, Handlooms and Textiles Department, Rajannna Sircilla district.
The Shivashakti MACS has already dispatched 6 lakh flags to the TSCO for distribution among households to fly the national tricolour high on the houses from August 13 to 15.
