Hyderabad: In a major relief to the weaver community, Telangana high court has quashed a tender for procuring material from suppliers in the open market through a new Project Monitoring Unit.Govt has initiated the tender process for procuring carpets, bed sheets, blankets, towels, uniform cloth, etc, for students of various residential and govt educational institutions across the state after cancelling the existing orders placed with Telangana State Handloom Weavers Co-operative Society (TSCO).Ruling that the tender process bypassed local handloom cooperative societies, Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti has directed all govt departments to strictly follow the March 2024 govt order, which mandated that all departments must buy handloom products exclusively through TSCO.The judge, however, allowed other agencies only if TSCO issued a ‘non-availability certificate’ confirming it could not meet the demand. The order was passed on Monday while hearing Veeranjaneya Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society of Warangal, which challenged the procurement move by the education department ahead of the new academic year.Further holding that the 2024 order was intended to promote and sustain the handloom industry, aiming at the socio-economic development of the weaver community, any other interpretation of the order would only impair it, the judge said.“This court has no hesitation to hold that respondent authorities cannot bypass the mandate of the GO, which is intended for a socio-economic purpose, upliftment of the community of weavers at large. If their contentions are to be accepted, it would amount to causing damage to the purport of the GO, which is bona fide and beneficial in nature with a social purpose and objective,” the judge said.The judge further observed that the weaving community was the “backbone of the industry” but remained vulnerable, and noted that weavers faced competition from power looms and rising raw material costs, which led to financial distress and suicides within the community.Setting aside the tender, the court directed departments to follow this govt diktat and warned that any deviation would “doom” the existence of cooperative societies and defeat the purpose of protecting the sector.The court said the ruling protected the livelihoods of 40,000 weavers and workers in the state and directed TSCO to coordinate closely with local societies for procurement so that the art of weaving remained a viable means of survival.
