Date:15/12/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/12/15/stories/2002121500571300.htm

National

Centre to develop infrastructure in textile centres

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI Dec. 14. In an attempt to speed up the development of infrastructure in textile centres across the country, the Centre has decided to increase its share under the Textile Centre Infrastructure Scheme, launched earlier this year.

Under a new set of guidelines issued recently, the Centre would now bear the entire cost involved in setting up of common effluent treatment plants and projects to improve water supply and drainage facilities and construction of creches for apparel units.

For other components, which include construction of roads, provision of testing and design facilities, strengthening of power supply, improvement of warehousing and communication and IT networks, the Centre would contribute 75 per cent of the cost.

The overall Central assistance for programmes would, however, remain at Rs. 20 crores per textile centre. The scheme covers new and emerging centres, besides the traditional ones such as Chennai, Tirupur, Coimbatore, Karur, Salem-Erode, Bangalore, Kannur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi-Noida-Gurgaon, Meerut-Pilakhua, Panipat, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bilwara, Ahmedabad, Surat, Solapur, Malegaon, and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.

In a related development, the Union Textile Ministry has proposed to modify the Technology Mission on Cotton with a view to make it more effective. As per the proposal, assistance under the Mission would be made available for several additional activities such as installation of new bale press and testing laboratories at ginning and pressing factories, treatment of seeds with insecticides and training of facilitators. In turn, assistance would be discontinued for some activities such as activation of dormant yard and production of breeder seed, which were earlier covered by the Mission.

In reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Textiles, Basanagouda R. Patil, said the modifications were proposed on the basis of the experience gained during the implementation of the scheme so far.

The Centre would consider a proposal to assist in restructuring the Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation as soon as the State Government took steps to streamline its business policy and rationalise its manpower. The KHDC is required to retire 315 identified surplus employees under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme and to convert the loan of Rs. 26 crores advanced by the State Government into equity.