• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

Panel calls for sale of surplus NTC mill lands

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, July 5

THE Industrial Tripartite Committee on Cotton Textiles has urged State Governments to emulate the Maharashtra experiment of allowing sale of surplus land of the National Textiles Corporation (NTC) mills for their revival.

The meeting of the committee, attended by the Union Labour Minister, Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya, the Textiles Minister, Mr. Kashiram Rana, and representatives from trade unions, employers' organisations and State Governments, was called here on Wednesday to consider the fate of NTC mills not fulfilling the Board for Industrial Finance and Reconstruction's (BIFR) norms of viability and implementation of voluntary retirement schemes modelled on the Gujarat pattern.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Rana said that the Government wanted an early solution to the issue since it was paying Rs. 460 crores annually as idle wages to workers. Dr. Jatiya too, emphasised that the Government will have to take a clear decision in or der to communicate its views to the BIFR regarding the eight sick subsidiaries of NTC and not prolong the suffering of workers in those mills. Mr. Rana said that the Government wants to keep four subsidiaries operational.

State Government representatives said that they were not against the sale of surplus land in principle. But since such land is currently covered under the Urban Land Ceiling Act, there is need for a separate legislation to facilitate their sale. The turn around plans approved by the Centre in 1992 and 1995 have not been implemented in the absence of consent by the States concerned for sale of the mills' surplus land.

Currently, of the 119 NTC mills, 25 are fully working and 51 partially, while the remaining 43 are non-operational.