BELLARY: Thanks to an initiative by the State Government, around 190 employees of the Bellary Spinning and Weaving Mills will be getting monetary benefits more than two decades after the mill was closed.

Each one of them is slated to get relief ranging from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 30,000 under the Textile Workers Rehabilitation Fund set up by the Centre in 1986 to provide interim relief to workers rendered unemployed owing to the closure of textile units in the private sector, official sources told The Hindu .

Minister for Textiles, Mr. Sriramulu on coming to know of the details of the scheme from officials took up the issue with the Centre. All workers, including permanent, badli or casual workers, who were in continuous service for five years or more before the closure of the millare eligible to get the benefits under the scheme. This is believed to be the first case in the State where employees of a private mill are getting benefited under the scheme.

The Bellary Spinning and Weaving Mill, the only textile mill in the private sector in Bellary, was permanently closed in December 1986 rendering 414 workers jobless. Of the details collected of 320 workers, only 199 are found to be eligible to get the monetary benefits.

The Minister was assisted in his efforts by Assistant Director Department of Handlooms and Textiles S.S.Benakal. Gurulinganagowda, president of the Bellary Spinning and Weaving Mills, said efforts were under way to get benefits for employees who had not been covered.

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