Even as the All Trade Unions Action Committee of Anglo French Textile (AFT) Mills on Monday announced a series of protests, the management claimed that it had no plans to lease out the premises to private parties .
Alleging that the management has been trying to lease out the mill to private parties, workers affiliated to various trade unions have been agitating for a few days. They met under its president and AITUC leader V.S. Abishegam and discussed various issues. At the end of meeting, they also passed resolutions urging the Chief Minister N. Rangasamy to take steps to commence the operations of the mill immediately as he had promised in the Assembly.
They also said the management should disburse gratuity and other benefits to those retired from service and opted for voluntary retirement scheme. As per recommendations of Dr. Chenna Reddy committee, the mill should be modernised with financial assistance from the Union Government.
“Until the financial year 1993-94, AFT, Swadeshi and Bharathi mills fetched Rs.250 crore revenue to the Union government through exports. But the Union Government has not done anything to renovate these mills,” said Mr. Abishegam.
The action committee said once AFT was employing several persons. Until the year 2000, 7,600 workers were on the rolls of the mill. Due to wrong policies of successive government, the mill was pushed to the current situation. It is the responsibility of Union and Union Territory Governments to bring the mill to working condition.
The trade unions said the Union Territory government should obtain Rs.500 crore from the Union Government to modernise and run the mill successfully. The Union Government should release immediately the amount considering the real situation. The trade unions announced that they would conduct street corner protests from April 8.
Meanwhile, the management of AFT Mills made it clear that it has no plans to lease it out private parties as of now.
“We have no plan to privatise the mill or lease out to private parties as of now. The government passed cabinet resolutions seeking the permission of the Union Government to sell the land at Pattanur for successfully running the mill and to settle the dues to workers. The Union government is yet to give its sanction,” Chairman of AFT Mills, V.Bhalan told The Hindu ,
He said he invited the trade union leaders for talks on Tuesday.
