TN to launch state cotton corporation soon, says Minister

COIMBATORE: Minister for Handlooms and Textiles R Gandhi on Thursday said plans are afoot to launch Cotton Corporation of Tamil Nadu on the lines of Cotton Corporation of India to purchase and stock cotton to keep its prices under check.

Addressing reporters here, Gandhi however said the proposal has been pending due to lack of funds with the state government.

“Once established, cotton can be purchased and stocked in them to keep prices of cotton under check in the open market. Of the 125 lakh bales required in Tamil Nadu, 15 lakh bales are produced in the state. Sourcing cotton from north India is both expensive and also time consuming. However, only the central government has the authority to fix prices of cotton,” he said.

“Nine lakh metres of uniform clothes were made by Tamil Nadu Textile Corporation (TNTC) for school students. Also old power looms were replaced with air jet weaving machines to increase production. And power supply for them will be made through the solar panels,” he said.

Further, the Minister said such modernisation efforts would transform the sector to be more profitable.

“Of the 18 spinning mills owned by the state government, only six mills are functional now as others have been shut down. Even those mills would have been shut down, if not for the efforts by the DMK,” he added. Claiming that, as local people do not come to work in mills, the migrant workers from north India are employed the Minister said it is unlike in railways, where native people are denied a chance and others, who do not know Tamil are employed.