Members of the People’s Initiative Kollam (PIK) staged a dharna in front of the National Textile Corporation (NTC)-owned Parvathi Mills complex, near Chinnakada, in the city on Wednesday demanding that the land housing the mill should be used for productive purposes.
Inaugurating the dharna, PIK chairman B.A. Rajakrishnan said that with the proposal for starting a medical college hospital (MCH) attached to the District Hospital gaining momentum, the 25 acres of land where the mill was located would be the right property to house the medical college.
He said the mill complex was only about 100 metres from the District Hospital complex.
Even after lying closed for many years, there was no move from the side of the NTC to revive the mill. The whole machinery and buildings in the complex were in ruins.
The PIK activists called for immediate rehabilitation of the remaining employees of the mill so as to make the complex available for the people of Kollam city for accommodating the much-needed MCH.
The dharna was led by PIK leaders Ferdinand Kayavil, M.A. Salam, Sivaramakrishna Pillai, K.P. Ramachandran, T. Reghunath, Rajashekaran Pillai, Jane Ancil, and D. Syamantha Bhardan.