Hyderabad, Nov. 6: The Andhra Pradesh secretariat wore a khadi look today, with employees at the chief minister?s office taking to the fabric in a big way.

Chief secretary Mohan Kanda sported a khadi shirt while secretaries at chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy?s office also switched to the fabric. Even Reddy?s public relations officer purchased a khadi shirt last evening to be in ?handloom shape? this morning.

The switch to the fabric has been prompted by Reddy?s decision to promote the sale of handloom clothes. He wants all party workers to begin sporting the fabric once again as part of Congress culture.

The pro-farmer chief minister?s move comes in the wake of more and more weavers committing suicide after failing to sell their products, falling into debt and eventually starvation.

During the six months Reddy has been in power, about 45 weavers have committed suicide in Karimnagar district alone, compared with 75 weavers across the rest of Andhra.

The chief minister has said everyone in the state should sport khadi clothes at least once a week to give the handloom sector a fillip. Reddy himself always wears spotless white khadi shirts and cotton dhotis.

Sources at the handloom corporation say clothes worth nearly Rs 85 crore have been lying unsold in Andhra over the last few years. Weavers are yet to be paid Rs 35 crore, dating back to 2000.

Weavers? suicides rocked Andhra two years ago, with more than 110 committing suicide after a glut in the handloom markets of Chirala and Prodattur when sales of lungis to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka failed to materialise.

The government has made it mandatory for every official to wear khadi to work each Saturday. Even MLAs and ministers have to wear the fabric. Women can sport cotton or khadi saris or suits.

A senior secretary in the general administration depar-tment said: ?Although there is no penalty or punishment for not wearing khadi or handlo-om, the employees will get an appreciation letter from the chief minister if they do .It will be included in their service files.?

Reddy says the khadi popularisation is just a start. ?I sincerely believe that the only way to revive the village industry and allow farmers to become economically strong was to promote all cottage industries like khadi??

He said like information technology, agriculture and village promotion are also essential for Andhra?s all-round development.