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Funds crunch hits cotton, yarn purchase by mill

Special Correspondent

Minister concedes fall in production of cloth by AFT Mills

Puducherry: Industries and Power Minister V. Vaithilingam told the Assembly on Wednesday that the Government-owned AFT (Anglo French Textile) Mills here needed Rs 2.5 crore every month to purchase cotton and yarn (raw materials) to go ahead with its production of cloth. But shortage of funds hampered in procurement of the full requirement of raw materials.

The mill also had to curtail purchase of yarn from outside. The mill had to normally purchase 5000 kg of yarn everyday from outside and this could not be done for want of sufficient funds.

Government help

Replying to a call attention motion tabled earlier by R Viswanathan (Communist Party of India), the Industries Minister said that the Government helped the mill by providing funds in the budget.

He said the mill would normally produce around 50,000 metres of cloth a day.

The mill administered by Pondicherry Textiles Corporation Limited (an undertaking of Puducherry government) required 13,000 kg of yarn for this purpose everyday.

Its spinning unit would produce a maximum of 8000 kg of yarn and the remaining 5000 kg had to be purchased from outside.

But the resource crunch had resulted in keeping some looms without beams and production of cloth ranging between 40,000 to 45,000 metres alone could be maintained till December last year. The production started declining further because of shortage of raw materials and it stood at 35,000 metres a day up to March this year.

A committee of MLAs visited the mill and reviewed its production on March 19.

Temporary

He, however, claimed that shortage of raw materials was only a temporary phenomenon. The suppliers of raw materials who were reluctant to supply the raw materials were now meeting the requirement on the mill's assurance that the arrears would be settled in the next 20 days.

He said the Government placed at the disposal of the mill Rs. 17 crore as its share capital to enable it to meet the commitments and ensure that the mill continued to work without any disturbance.

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