Cenvat casts gloom over Bhiwandi's powerlooms

First, powerloom owners in the township of Bhiwandi in western Maharashtra bandied around for a 'bandh' on June 10.

They were protesting against the imposition of the central value added tax (Cenvat) regime, which kicked-off on a muted note with most powerlooms operating on a reduced scale.

Interestingly, these powerloom owners now have pinned their hopes on a political party in far away Tamil Nadu "" the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

According to the powerloom owners' representative bodies, the agitation will be stepped up if the Union Budget does not redress their issues with the Cenvat. For the powerloom workers, however, the prospect of a repeat of last year's indefinite 'bandh' has once again brought to the fore an uncertain future.

These daily wage earners, who congregate near the Syed Sufi Abdul dargah trust building, hope that the powerloom township never decides to close shop again.

Says Surendranath Tiwari, a powerloom worker, "I work for a powerloom owner whose facility is housed in the Ashapura compound. Every afternoon (since this week) the power is cut from 1 pm to 7 pm. This scheduled loadshedding is changed every week by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB). So we while away our time away during the day."

Sunil Gupta used to work on an automated Japanese powerloom when employed. "Can you give me a job?" is all he asks for today.

Says Naseer Ahmed Momin, proprietor of Ajanta Textiles, which owns and operates 100 powerlooms: "In the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, the DMK-Congress alliance in TN was able to wrest away all the parliamentary seats from the ruling AIADMK. Chennai's powerloom business is cotton-based, while we have cotton and polyster-based businesses in Maharashtra. In its political manifesto, the DMK has promised the excise duty imposed on weavers will be done away with. As a crucial coalition ally of the Congress, both in the state and the Centre, we are hopeful that the DMK carries forward its poll promise."

Momin adds, "I am operating only 38 of my looms. This, too, is because I have some stock of raw materials. This will be exhausted by June 20, much like most other powerlooms in Bhiwandi."

He concedes that unlike the indefinite strike launched when Cenvat was actually imposed one year ago on June 1, 2003, this time around, the various powerloom owner federations are speaking in different voices.

On June 5 and June 8, 2004, local member of the legislative assembly Rashid Tahim Momin, held two meetings with the powerloom owners, where he sought a deferment of the 'bandh' to give the newly-elected government at the Centre adequate time to understand and consider the issues faced by the powerloom owners.