Trichy:

Women belonging to the Cauvery Women Tailors’ Cooperative Association, Trichy on Monday submitted a petition to district collector Jayashree Muralidharan seeking her intervention to not divert orders for stitching school uniforms to unregistered tailors citing time constraints.

In their petition, the women coming under categories like below poverty line, widows, destitutes and differently-abled persons were given orders from the district social welfare office to stitch school uniforms for government and aided schools in Trichy district. The association has been in existence for the past 29 years and was providing employment to the poor women to run their families.

Earlier, the officials gave enough time for delivering the stitched uniforms. However, last year after the then state government’s decision to provide two sets of school uniforms to the students, the special officer Veeramani sought the tailors to finish the task within a day, failing which he diverted the orders to unregistered tailors in Sivaganga district. Due to this, the tailors had faced a loss of income last year. Unfortunately, the uniforms could not be used as they were declared unfit. This year, the state government has ordered to provide four sets of uniforms to the students. The tailors claimed that the special officer is again trying to give the orders to outsiders.

According to official sources, as many as 1.50 lakh students in the district benefited every year. In the wake of the government order, the number of school uniform sets would go up this year. So, the officials shared the orders to tailors in Sivaganga district to complete it on time. Previously, the tailors were given five months time to complete the orders. But this year, the time is very limited. So this year also, the government gave very limited time to complete the order before June 10.

When contacted K Yasodhai, district social welfare officer, Trichy said that since the petition was submitted to the district collector, she cannot comment on the issue.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Madurai> Collections / TNN / May 29th, 2012