Maharashtra Govt To Sell Textile Land

Central and suburban Mumbai will witness a real estate frenzy following a state government decision to take over textile mill land and sell it in order to pay nearly Rs 500 crore owed in backwages to more than 20,000 mill workers.

This would apply to mills that were permitted to sell off a portion of their landholding provided they deposited the money so realised into an escrow account to be used to pay off the outstanding workers' dues as well as banks and other creditors.

A Bill on the proposed legislation will be brought before the state legislative assembly in the winter session. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmkh said: "It is found that despite being permitted to develop or sell a portion of their land many textile mills are yet to pay the outstanding wages to their respective workers.

Hence the state goverment has decided to take over the land holdings of such textile mills and sell the sme to clear the workers' dues."

Labour Secretary Ashok Khot when contacted said: "Many of these mills like the Matulya mill (7.15 acre) that has an outstanding of Rs 20 crore towards workers' dues earned Rs 88 crore by constructing a multi-storeyed building complex. However the mill owner has only deposited Rs 5 crore with the court that is hearing the matter on the plea of the 640 workers it employed."

He added that similar instances had been pointed out regarding the Mafatlal mills (no 2 and 3 spread over 14.11 acre) where a sum of Rs 104 crore is outstanding in dues owed to 2500 workers.

"The Standard and New China Mill spread over 12.34 acre is another example. The millownersconstructed 22 storeyed buildings at Prabhadevi where offices of the Tata showrom, ICICI bank have started operations. However, dues amounting to Rs 80 crore owed to 3600 workers is still outstanding. The Piramal Mill housed on 4.33 acre similarly owes Rs 60 crore to its 1650 workers," Khot added.

He said that the Khatau Mills that has three properties, namely the 13.6 acre mill land at Byculla (4927 workers), 53 acre plot in Borivli (537 workers) and 100 acre land at Mahad located close to Mumbai (117 workers) has to deposit Rs 23 crore as per the Board for Industrial and Financial Restructuring (BIFR) order and another Rs 44 crore owed to its bankers.

Complaints were also received regarding the Morarjee (number one) mill and the Hindustan and Crown Mills where the workers had opted for the voluntary retirement scheme. The government will look into these cases as well as Bradbury mill which is currently under liquidation.

"We are still receiving complaints from workers and would be including more mills in the drive to clear the outstanding payments owed to workers. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Karun Srivastav has been directed to grant no more permissions to mill owners to develop their landed property where mill operations have long since been suspended. We will also inquire about the construction activity undertaken already by these mills," Khot added.