Trade union leaders submitted a petition here on Monday to District Collector G.S. Sameeran demanding the State government to stress on the Central government to reopen the National Textile Corporation (NTC) mills in the State.
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The unions pointed out that seven NTC mills in the State, employing almost 5,000 people directly, were closed in May 2020. The unions have submitted several requests to the Central government through the “Save NTC” initiative. The union leaders had met Union Minister for Textiles Piyush Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director of NTC, and senior officials of the Textiles Ministry demanding re-opening of the mills and payment of full wages to the workers till then.
In 1965-1966, when private textile mills were in trouble and 15 mills were closed, it was then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi who formed Tamil Nadu Textiles Corporation and took up operation of these mills in 1972. In 1974, these were brought under the National Textile Corporation.
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Though 123 textile mills were operating under NTC, in the recent years, the number came down to 23, including seven in Tamil Nadu.
When lockdown was implemented in 2020 to control the spread of COVID-19, the NTC mills were also closed. However, though other industries started operations from May 2020, the NTC mills remain shut. The trade union leaders have met Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, senior government officials at the Centre and State, and Mr. Piyush Goyal several times and demanded re-opening of the mills and payment of full wages to workers till then. However, there was no response so far.
Families of 5,000 workers in the State is affected and the State government should take up the issue with the Centre, the union leaders said.