NTC workers ask Vaghela to revive plants

Apprehending that the Congress-led central government may retract from the National Textile Corporation (NTC) revival scheme drawn up by the previous National Democratic Alliance government, the employees of the NTC have asked Union Textile Minister Shankersinh Vaghela to revive and modernise the 53 units in the country, including two units in Madhya Pradesh.

Representatives of the National Federation of the NTC Employees recently submitted a memorandum to Vaghela, asking him to implement the revival scheme as approved by the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), and not dismantle or merge its nine subsidiaries.

The NTC employees' apprehension stems from the fact that contrary to the previous government's plans, the Congress-led central government has recently taken a decision to wind up the nine subsidiaries of NTC and directly control the mills.

This will adversely affect the implementation of the revival scheme because the holding company and its subsidiaries stand as promoters.

Under the revival plans, two NTC mills in the state""one each in Bhopal and Burhanpur""were found fit to be revived and modernised. NTC employees were satisfied with this development.

Federation Secretary R S Sharma said the previous government had drawn up a comprehensive scheme for all the 119 NTC mills in the country. The scheme envisaged the closure of 66 unviable mills and revival and modernisation of the remaining 53.

A voluntary retirement scheme was to be offered to the surplus workforce. The revival plan "" prepared and approved by the BIFR in early 2002""was to be implemented by April 2004. The expenditure was to be met through sales of surplus assets of NTC mills.

But even though Rs 50 crore was raised through sales of assets, the government so far has not spent much on the modernisation of the viable mills and no new machinery has been purchased in the past two years.

Besides, the government did not provide interest-free loans to the NTC for the implementation of the scheme. As per the revival scheme, the NTC had to issue bonds.

The realised funds from the sales of surplus assets were being drained out in payments of interest on bonds and the revival of mills had been kept in abeyance, which had further added to the heavy losses, the memorandum to the minister said.