Over 3,000 workers rendered jobless following closure of the Kanpur-based Elgin Mill in the year 1992 have gained hopes of its revival after almost two decades of agitation and strife. The Union finance ministry has recommended the textile ministry to examine prospects of swift resumption of operations at Elgin-2 Mill by furthering proposal to the UP government.
The city’s closed mills have been on the political agenda for the past one decade and the central government-owned National Textile Corporation (NTC) was unable to fulfil the revival promises made by the political parties. This time, however, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has approved a Rs 313-crore revival package for the mill.
Elgin-2 Mill has also been approved by the Board of Restructuring of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) for the purpose. A special cabinet committee constituted for the purpose will review the proposal soon. The textile ministry has sent a letter to the state government for allowing the sale of surplus land of Elgin-1 mill to arrange for funds to revive the other one.
The finance ministry has however refused to sanction the demand of Rs 145 crore of bridge loan for the ailing establishment. Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government rejected BRPSE’s proposal to sell the land of first unit of Elgin Mills to revive the second mill. The Mayawati government rejected the proposal on the ground that the land in question is leasehold and could not be converted into freehold.
Till now, the Centre has made three fruitless efforts to convince the UP. government to allow the conversion of land to freehold so that it could go ahead with BRPSE’s proposal of reviving the second mills of the company with sale proceeds of the land.
If the Mayawati government allows the conversion of lease land into freehold, the state government will stand to gain revenue of Rs. 100 crores , apart from generating employment for around 10,000 workers.
Elgin Mills is a subsidiary of British India Corporation (BIC), which was declared sick in 1992 and the Board of Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) approved Rs 210-crore plan in December 2002 to revive two units of BIC at Lalimli in U.P. and Dhariwal in Punjab.