Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Textiles

14-May-2012 15:30 IST

The details of mills along with the number of workers and profit/loss during the last three years is given at Annexure-I.

Problems have been faced in optimum capacity utilization of the mills, on account of the acute power cuts in the State of Tamil Nadu where 7 mills are located and due to labour shortage.  Despite this ,13 mills made cash profits in the year 2010-11 as can be seen from Annexure-I.  In the year 2011-12, NTC, alongwith the entire textile industry, faced acute price volatility and supply side disruptions in raw cotton, which aggravated its losses.

Several steps have been taken by NTC to tackle the problems.  As per the Revival Scheme approved by BIFR, NTC has modernized its mills and invested Rs. 1169 crores towards modernization till date.  Other initiatives taken by NTC include inter alia the provision of DG sets to deal with acute power cuts in the State of Tamil Nadu; engagement of women workers, providing transport, subsidized food etc to deal with labour shortages; obtaining ISO certification for 16 mills; utilization of Information Technology to improve efficiencies etc.

NTC has offered Modified Voluntary Retirement Scheme (MVRS) to the workers affected by the closure of the unviable mills.  The MVRS package covers the compensation for the service rendered as well as the balance service. Besides this, DPE has formulated a scheme for Counselling, Retraining and Redeployment (CRR) of employees of Public Sector and NTC employees are exposed to CRR programmes.

The State wise/mill wise workers opted for Modified Voluntary Retirement Scheme during the last three years and amount paid to them is at Annexure-II.

Earlier the Govt. of Maharashtra had asked for 4 acres of land of India United Mill No. 6 vested in National Textile Corporation (NTC) for construction of a memorial for Bharat Ratna Dr. BabasahebAmbedkar.  Subsequently, the Government of Maharashtra has requested for transfer of the entire land of India United Mill No. 6 to the Government of Maharashtra for developing the Memorial. 

To examine and make recommendations on the issue, a Committee consisting of officials from the Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Environment & Forest, State Government of Maharashtra and other co-opted Members (including Ministry of Law and Justice) has been constituted.    The broad Terms of Reference of the Committee are to make recommendations on the following:

• The modalities of making available the requisite land for the proposed Memorial, subject to the condition that the title and ownership of the land shall remain either with the Govt of India/NTC or with the State Govt.
• Compliance with environmental, legal and procedural requirements in the matter.
• Modalities for suitably and adequately compensating NTC for making available the approximately 12 acres of land for the memorial.
• Any other relevant matter.

2 Meetings of the Committee have been held.

 Annexure – II

DETAILS OF NTC MILLS CLOSED DURING LAST  03 YEARS & COMPENSATION PAID

This information was given by the Minister of State for Textiles, Smt. Panabaaka Lakshmi in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

DS/GK

Modified Voluntary Retirement compensation and land transfer modalities shape NTC mill rehabilitation and memorial land access. NTC faced operational and financial distress from power cuts, labour shortages and raw cotton supply volatility, resulting in widespread cash losses; under the Revival Scheme it undertook modernization investments, deployed DG sets and workforce measures, and offered a Modified Voluntary Retirement Scheme (MVRS) with compensation and exposure to Counselling, Retraining and Redeployment (CRR) programmes, while an inter ministerial committee is to recommend modalities, environmental compliance and compensation relating to transfer of India United Mill No.6 land for a memorial.