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OTM revival: State does a volte-face again

CUTTACK: Even as more than 5,000 former employees of the closed Orissa Textile Mill (OTM) at Choudwar, about 15 km from here, are on a dharna for nearly two years now, the Orissa Government has indicated that it has no plans to revive the mill.

In an affidavit to the High Court, the government has informed that the revival of the sick unit and rehabilitation of its former employees were not “possible” under the proposed Integrated Textile Park (ITP) to be set up here in collaboration with a private textile firm.

The decision of the government has virtually put a seal on the revival of the State’s premier textile mill that was set up in 1946 and commissioned in 1950 in the industrial township.

The government’s move has also come as a rude shock to the former employees who have been demanding payment of the arrear dues.

At least 20 former employees committed suicide and another 150 family members of other employees died in abject poverty ever since the mill was closed.

Some former employees have been on dharna at the mill site since September 2003 demanding arrear payment of nearly Rs. 40 crores.

The government has said revival of the mill and rehabilitation of its former employees has “no particular significance” in the new scheme of things.

“As an individual entity, the mill cannot be rehabilitated and revived. The area, however, can be given a fresh lease of life by a systematic investment,” the government report stated.

The government said it wanted to utilise the entire 522-acre of OTM land for setting up a comprehensive textile park. “The proposed park will consist of a spinning mill with over 50,000 spindles, a weaving mill with 96 air-jet looms and a state-of-the-art processing unit capable of producing 180 lakh metre of textile per annum,” the report said.

It may be recalled here that after the mill was declared sick in 1992 and finally closed down in 2003, the government decided to get rid of it. The government liquidator appointed by the court sold the mill to a Gujarat-based company for an amount of Rs. 23 crores in November 2005.

When M/s I B Enterprises of Gujarat deposited the amount and wanted to take possession of the land and machinery, the government pleaded the court to recall the sale order.

The government said it was planning to revive the closed unit through the ITP and deposited Rs. 30 crores with the government liquidator in compliance to an court order earlier this year.

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