Over 50 cotton mills face closure in last 3yrs

Over 50 sick cotton mills in the country were closed down in the last three years due to low productivity, inadequate working capital, stagnant demand and increase in input costs, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

"52 cotton/man-made fibre textile mills (non-small scale industry) were closed down during May 2006 to April 2009," Minister of state for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi said in a written reply to a quaetion in the Lok Sabha.

Of the 52 mills, 16 textile cases were registered with the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) as on April 30, 2009, she said.

On the steps to taken rehabilitate employees of the closed sick cotton mills, she said, "There is no direct policy formulated by the government to rehabilitate workers rendered unemployed due to closure of textile units."

The government launched a textile workers rehabilitation fund scheme on September 15, 1986, to provide relief to textile workers rendered unemployed because of permanent unit closure or closure of any particular portion of the firm.

She said that assistance under the scheme is payable to eligible workers only for enabling them to settle in another employment. Till May 31, 2009, 1,02,711 workers have been paid relief of Rs 262.01 crore under the programme.

There are 1,422 cotton/man-made fibre textile mills in the non-SSI segment.