CUTTACK: Notwithstanding the fact that at least 15 former employees of the Orissa Textiles Mills at Choudwar committed suicide and another 150 family members of other employees died due to lack of proper treatment, the Orissa Government is dillydallying in its decision to revive the mill that was closed in 2003.

Though the government liquidator appointed by the High Court sold the premier textiles mill of the State in the year 2005 to a Gujarat-based company after it was declared sick, neither the new owner is handed over the unit nor the government has come out with any concrete proposal to restart it.

M/s I.B. Enterprises of Gujarat, in whose favour the sale of OTM premises along with land and machinery was confirmed in November 2005, has also sought the court's intervention to take possession of the unit. The company has deposited the entire bid amount of Rs. 23 crores with the liquidator.

After filing an application before the High Court in October last year under the Companies Act to recall the sale order of the liquidator, the government informed the court that it was planning to revive the closed unit. The court was urged by the government to facilitate revival of the OTM through a proposed integrated textile park. The court, after considering the application, asked the government to deposit a sum of Rs. 30 crores before it and submit a detail proposal of revival.

Three months passed by and the government is still buying time. Recently, the government, for the fourth time, urged the High Court to grant a further three months time to submit the amount and the blue print. The court asked the government to deposit the sum by Feb.28 and posted the case to March 9.

More than 5,000 former employees of the mill, along with their spouses and children, have been on a round-the-clock dharna for more than a year now in front of the mill after locking its only entrance.

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