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Sops for sick textile mills sought

By Our Special Correspondent

MALAPURAM APRIL 23 . The Government has been urged to intervene to defuse the crisis that is threatening to ruin the textile sector in the State. The CITU-led State Textile Workers' Federation has demanded that the mills be given working capital and tax concessions to enable them to get out of the financial rut into which they have fallen.

The textile mills have fallen sick mainly because of the hike in electricity tariff and increase in cost of production of thread due to the rise in price of cotton. Though cotton price has shot up, there has been no corresponding increase in the price of thread to generate more revenue for the mills. Lack of modernisation of mill-machinery that is necessary to improve quality of thread has been another roadblock, they said.

Large quantities of thread, estimated to be worth crores of rupees, was lying unsold in godowns in most of the textile mills. Unable to find buyers for the thread, the mill managements had not been able to pay salary for their workers even for festivals like Vishu, the CITU leaders alleged.

The State has 35 textile mills, five of them managed by the National Textiles Corporation. Six are in the Government sector, six in the cooperative sector and the remaining 18 are privately-owned.

The most eloquent proof of the crisis in textile sector is the fact that a majority of the mills are sick. Financial problems have forced the closure of 11 mills. Lay-offs have been declared in two mills in the cooperative sector. The other mills are on the brink of closure. The Federation leaders have alleged that the closure of its mills by the NTC amounted to violation of the terms of its agreement with the employees.

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