The Hemant Soren government as per its poll promises is once again going to launch the Saree/dhoti/lungi scheme. The dhoti-sari-lungi scheme is to provide the clothes twice a year to below poverty line families at the cost of just Rs 10. Chief Minister Hemant Soren in his first term in 2014 had launched the dhoti saree scheme, but later when the BJP government headed by Raghubar Das came to power they stopped the scheme. The 2014 saree/dhoti/lungi scheme was named after Hemant Soren’s grandparents Sona-Sobran.
The scheme will be implemented by the Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Department. The clothes would be made available on the PDS shops. Additional Chief Secretary Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Department Arun Singh said, “The department has started preparations for re-launching the scheme. The department will place the proposal for getting approval from the cabinet. After getting a cabinet nod it will be launched.”
In this year's budget too, the State Government announced to re-launch the cloth scheme. The government announced the scheme for 57 lakh families. The beneficiary will get the cloth at Rs 10 twice the year.
Sources said that by launching the scheme the government believes that they will reach the poor directly. Sources said that in 2014 when Raghubar Das government decided to roll back the scheme launched by his predecessor Hemant Soren, then food and public distribution minister Saryu Roy was against government decision to roll back the scheme. However, the saree/dhoti/lungi scheme came under scanner as there were charges of distribution of poor quality of saree/dhoti/lungi under the scheme. There was an allegation that the material supplied to the PDS for distribution to the BPl families is not similar to the sample provided by the supplier.
Sources said that the saree/dhoti/lungi scheme has remained the pet issue of political parties during election.
The scheme originally started in the year 1983 by the then Tamil Nadu CM M. G. Ramachandran. He started this scheme to encourage and increase employment opportunities in the handloom weaving sector in the state.
Later, the scheme became the baby of AIADMK party. There are two main objectives of the scheme. One is to encourage the handloom industry in the state and the other objective is to provide better clothes to the poor people.