Hyderabad: Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Friday took a dig at the Centre’s 'double standards' on delimitation of Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies, asking why the Centre was adopting one rule for Jammu and Kashmir and another for the southern states.
Rama Rao said that the Centre's decision to enhance GST on handlooms and textiles from five to 12 per cent would sound the death-knell for the industry. He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and reduce GST on handlooms and textiles to save weavers.
In a tweet, Rao said “Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, on the National Handloom Day you had talked of strengthening #Vocal for handmade. On the contrary to the idea, your government has enhanced the GST on handlooms and textiles from 5 percent to 12 percent, which will be a death knell for the industry. Request you to intervene and save the weavers (sic).”
Referring to the delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K, Rao tweeted, "Strange are the way of people in power at the Centre (sic)." The Tweet came amid concerns that south India could lose Lok Sabha seats on the basis of population, while the reverse was happening in J&K.
