Weavers in Virudhunagar district continued with their gruel centre protest for the 17th day on Sunday, with no concrete order coming from the State Government to fulfil their charter of demands with regard to manufacturing of sarees meant for free distribution by the Government.
The weavers, affiliated to CITU, condemned Social Welfare Minister K. Jegadeshwari for her misleading social media post claiming that the weavers’ associations had withdrawn their strike after the talks with officials held on Friday.
“We were invited for talks with the officials, led by Sivakasi Sub-Collector Mohammed Irfan, on Friday. Rajapalayam Tahsildar, Rahul Gandhi and Assistant Director (Handlooms), Cheran, negotiated with us with the promise of having drawn the attention of the State Government to the demands of the weavers,” said CITU district secretary for weavers association, A. Ramar.
The Sub-Collector asked the weavers to wait for 10 more days for the announcement to be made by the Government. However, the weavers who expressed their disappointment over the prolonged delay in State Government fulfilling their demands told the officials that they would decide on their appeal later before leaving from the meeting venue.
Meanwhile, Ms. Jegadeshwari had posted a message on social media along with a photograph of weavers with officials, claiming that the weavers had given up their protest. In her post on Friday, she said that the weavers would return to work on Saturday.
“Minister, who had not participated in any of the talks with the protesting weavers all these days, also claimed that the weavers had thanked her for bringing their protest to an end,” Mr. Ramar said while condemning her.
The weavers from Muthusamypuram and Rajapalayam region, who met at Punalveli on Saturday, said that they would continue with their protest till their demand on increase of wage for the new variety of saree proposed by the State Government was met.
They also stuck with their demands for State Government providing them â‚ą10,000 for modification of their handlooms to weave a new variety of the saree and government procurement of old sarees in stock with weavers.
Published – September 27, 2026 07:17 pm IST
