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Maharashtra govt not too happy about taking over NTC mills

Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi is not too pleased with the Centre's plan to hand over the running of the National Textile Corporation mills to the state governments. "Basically, it is the Union government's responsibility to run these mills and they should not try to shrug it off."

Union Textile Minister R L Jalappa plans to hand over the NTC's 120 mills to the respective state governments. His letter to the Maharashtra government states: "The Union government is ready to hand over the NTC mills in Maharashtra to the state government along with all the assets at a token amount. But the mills must be run properly and the workers' rights protected. The Union government is prepared to waive off the loans, interest charged on them and money paid to workers under the voluntary retirement schemes."

Commenting on the letter, Joshi said, "We have received Jalappa's letter and a final decision on the proposal will be taken during the cabinet meeting." He added, "Running these mills is the Union government's responsibility and they should not run away from it."

Jalappa recently said that Maharashtra has 35 mills run by NTC. However, Maharashtra Mill Workers's Union President Dada Samant, who has welcomed Jalappa's proposal, claims that the state has only 25 NTC mills, of which 12 are in Bombay.

Joshi has asked the bureaucrats concerned to prepares a detailed report on the proposal's feasibility. The report will study the number of units, their balance sheets, land occupied by these mills and whether it can be sold in the real estate market, the amount of money that can be raised, and if the amount so realised can sustain the mills. A final decision on the matter will be taken after studying the report.

The mood in the government is also pessimistic. "We would not like to own already milked cows," said some cabinet ministers.

Dada Samant said that he and a few other union leaders from Kanpur and Ahmedabad had petitioned Prime Minister I K Gujral to hand over the mills to the respective state governments.

He claimed that the Union government had earlier planned to sell the mills and the land to the state governments and employ the proceeds elsewhere else. He said the Maharashtra government and the workers' union had opposed the plan.

"Jalappa's proposal is excellent and from now on all decisions will be taken in Bombay, not Delhi. We are ready to help the state government if they accept this proposal," he said.

Maharashtra seeks a month's time to decide

Compiled from the Marathi media and translated by Prasanna Zorey