PUDUCHERRY: The All Trade Unions Action Committee of Anglo French Textile mills has decided to organize agitations to protest the government’s proposal to lease out the mill to private industrialists.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the committee on Monday, AITUC leader V S Abishegam said the mill should not be handed over to private owners and urged the administration to re-open the mill as announced by Chief Minister N Rangasamy in Assembly recently.
He said the trade union will organise a road blockade on April 22 in front of the mill to press for their demands.
This will be preceded by street corner campaigns from April 8 to 21.
Further, the committee demanded that the government take immediate steps to get Rs 500 crores from the Centre to modernize the century-old mills as per the recommendations of the expert committee constituted by the then Lieutenant Governor (in charge) Chenna Reddy in December 1994.
Pointing out that the mill earned profits from 1980 to 1994 and that the Centre got substantial revenue from exports, Abishegam alleged that the then Central government failed to give due importance to the mill and did not allot funds for modernizing the mill.
The AITUC leader said a delegation of workers had met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and that he had agreed to their demand for sanctioning an amount to the tune of Rs 500 crore for renovating the mill.
Abishegam added that Singh had told them that the UT government should place a request for the fund, but the administration did not take any steps in this regard. As a result, the mill is now in a pitiable state.
Further, the AITUC leader said a delegation of trade unions will visit Delhi and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar and other ministers to take up the demands afresh.