Union protests govt move on mill land

MUMBAI, MARCH 12: The state government's nod to Shree Ram Mills to go ahead with the sale of its surplus land has come in for severe critici...

MUMBAI, MARCH 12: The state government’s nod to Shree Ram Mills to go ahead with the sale of its surplus land has come in for severe criticism from the labour union Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti. The samiti will hold meetings outside the Vidhan Bhavan during the state legislature’s forthcoming budget session to to lodge its protest against the decision.

At a press conference today, samiti secretary Datta Iswalkar said the union was contemplating filing a writ petition in the Mumbai High Court against the state government, the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), the BMC and the mill management for sanctioning land sale. Terming the government’s policy on the sale of thousands of acres of land belonging to sick mills a sham, Iswalkar said: “Chief Minister Manohar Joshi is trying to mislead people by saying approval to the sale of Shri Ram Mills land was as per directions of the BIFR and the advice of the Advocate General.”

The samiti alleged that the government and mill management hadcolluded to lure all workers into accepting the voluntary retirement scheme. “The government says revenue earned from land sale will be used for modernisation. What mill are they talking about when there are no workers to run it?” questioned Iswalkar, adding that mill land sale would eventually lead to closure of the mill.

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The rehabilitation of the sick mill was first undertaken by the Congress government in 1991. The mill was to retain 3,000 employees, and partial modernisation was proposed at a cost of Rs 11 crore, which was to be generated by the sale of 1,20,000 square feet of land.

The second scheme was undertaken in 1994, which proposed to shut down the entire weaving department and scale down spinning and processing departments. Modernisation costs for this scheme were pegged at Rs 4.56 crore, with the sale of an additional 1,20,000 square feet of land.

Although no modernisation was carried out in either of these schemes, the government came up with a third scheme which proposed the closure ofthe spinning department. Despite a drastic reduction in the expenses of the mill. Capital expenditure on modernisation was increased to a whopping Rs 30 crore. The scheme’s cost was also increased from about Rs 57 crore to Rs 164 crore to justify the sale of almost 3,01,000 square feet of land.

Referring to malpractices in other mills, Iswalkar said Joshi had himself stated that the management of Raghuvanshi Mills had violated FSI regulations and Development Control rules in its premises. “Joshi also formed a committee headed by municipal commissioner Girish Gokhale to probe into the scam, but nothing came of it. The government has also permitted the managements of New Great Eastern, Modern, Swan, Phoenix, Hindustan and Kamala mills go scot-free, although there is enough evidence to prove that they have sold excess land,” he stated. He alleged that instead of stopping the sale of mill land, especially in the case of Raghuvanshi, the government was merely regularising it.