Demand grows for reopening, state takeover of NTC mills

COIMBATORE: The livelihood of more than 5,000 workers in the National Textile Corporation (NTC) mills has been under stake due to their closure for more than two years.

Of the seven mills in Tamil Nadu, five are in Coimbatore, one each in Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram districts. The government stopped production in NTC mills in March 2020, when COVID-19 began to spread and subsequently lockdowns were imposed.

HMS leader TS Rajamani said that closure of mills has resulted in a production loss of around Rs 1.75 crore per day.

“Among the seven mills, Sri Rangavilas Mills in Coimbatore and the one at Sivaganga were modernised on par with private mills. Machineries in them may rust, if left un-operated and without maintenance. As the future of more than 5,000 workers remains uncertain, the governments should take efforts to reopen the mills taking into account the welfare of workers,” he said.

Closure of NTC mills also seems to have political underlings. INTUC general secretary VR Balasundaram claimed that the Central government has decided to close the NTC mills permanently as they were set up, when former Prime Minister Indra Gandhi was at the helm.

“It seems the government is trying to sell off these lands, worth several crores to private players. Even if the NTC mills take up orders for uniforms of police, army and other services, it would be sufficient to make profit,” he added.

Going from bad to worse, the trade unions claimed that the retirement benefits, which were given to workers until a year ago, have been kept pending. Also, the salaries of permanent employees and 50 per cent wages for non-permanent staff were not paid over the last two months.

“With no steps being taken towards their revival, the workers are gripped in fear over being forced into joblessness. It was these mills, which gave an identity to Coimbatore as and they should be revived again. With this objective in mind, the trade unions started the Save NTC campaign and held nationwide protests. Also, signatures of more than 40 MPs were submitted to Union Ministers, but nothing has happened so far,” said C Padmanabhan, coordinator of the Save NTC committee.

Trade unions have demanded that if there is further delay, then at least the state government should take over the mills and look at the possibility of running them on a public private partnership. With no signs of revival, the trade unions have also decided to intensify their protests in the coming days.

As NTC mills stare at closure, private units in Coimbatore script success

A worker going about her job at a private spinning mill

Even as the NTC mills are staring at a closure, the private mills in Coimbatore and across Tamil Nadu have been scripting success. There has been an exponential increase in private mills across Coimbatore and Tamil Nadu. A few decades ago, the city space was dotted with numerous mills. But now, the mills have moved from the city to rural areas. “This is one sector which has never seen a downfall as clothing is an essential thing after food. From just around 500 mills in Tamil Nadu three decades ago, the number of mills has grown phenomenally to more than 2,200 in the state. In Coimbatore alone, the number of mills has shot up to 260 from a meager 60 mills around 30 years back. Proliferation of mills happened across the state after the textile sector was decentralised in 1990’s,” said C Padmanabhan, coordinator of Save NTC committee. Private Mills in Coimbatore employ around 40,000 workers and around 4.5 crore spindles are operated. The textile sector, which was in cross roads over the two years, following a steep rise in prices of cotton yarn now looks positive, as its prices have also declined that too ahead of the festival season.