COIMBATORE: The jobless workers of NTC mills announced they will be rooting for the INDIA alliance candidate in Coimbatore in the Lok Sabha election. This stand was announced by the NTC Mills Trade Union Federation in Coimbatore on Monday as a protest against the closure of the mills by the Centre in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, thereby affecting the livelihood of 3 lakh workers.
DS Rajamani, state secretary of National Cotton Mills Association, said defeating BJP’s Annamalai is the united decision of all trade unions.
Addressing media, Rajamani said, “123 NTC mills across the country were nationalised in 1974 by the then PM Indira Gandhi. The workers were also given a bonus of 35% of the profits of which had been performing similar to private ones for more than 50 years. Due to poor management, many plants were closed and only 23 plants were operational. These factories were also shut down by the BJP government during the pandemic. When the coronavirus threat subsided and all the factories were allowed to operate, the central government did not operate the NTC mills. NTC mills were shut down illegally.”
"A writ petition has been filed in the Madras HC regarding this. According to the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, Section 25-O, the operation of the plant should have been stopped only after obtaining the permission of the TN Government. But, they didn’t. The closure of NTC mills has affected the daily production of 7,000 kg of yarn in TN alone. There has been a revenue loss of Rs1 crore. The closure of 23 plants across the country has resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 1,200 crore per year. They think that they can cheat the workers, the public and the voters in this election,” he concluded.
AITUC’s Aarumugam said that they will be supporting and rooting for DMK’s Coimbatore candidate Ganapathy Rajkumar’s victory and defeat of BJP’s Annamalai in this election.
Earlier, the NTC mills workers, trade union members and functionaries raised slogans against the BJP and the party’s Coimbatore constituency candidate Annamalai.