Tirupur: The job working power loom units’ owners have urged the central and state governments to waive off their bank loans as the governments had failed to ensure that the right weaving charges reached them.
Ironically, even now, most of the master weavers (textile manufacturers) were providing the weaving charges which were fixed as per a common contract signed in 2011 between them and the job working units. While two rounds of talks held between both the parties, before labour department authorities, failed, the job working unit owners are worried that the banks concerned were putting pressure/taking stringent action against loan defaulters.
As a part of their protest, more than 400 job working unit owners took part in a mass petition submitting stir at Tirupur district collectorate on Monday. According to the association, collector K S Palanisamy assured them that he will recommend the banks not to pressurize the loan defaulters at least for next three months.
More than two lakh job working power loom units were in the operation in Tirupur and Coimbatore, especially distributed in Somanur, Thekkalur and Palladam areas. The master weavers would supply yarns to the job working units and provide weaving charges per metre to them. The charges would vary based on the varieties.
Every three years, the master weavers and the job working units should enter into a contract on weaving charges. After the contract was signed before the government authorities in 2011, the master weavers provided the charges as per the contract but later they started reducing the charges claiming that cloth market had been hit. It took lots of struggles to bring on the contract in 2014 as the master weavers were not at ready to accept it, said S Prakash, a functionary of Tirupur district Job Working Power loom Unit Owners’ Association.
“But the master weavers followed the charges as per 2014 contract only up to three months and again returned to 2011 contract charges citing so-called cloth market slump. Still now, the same charges were given amid strong price inflation. As per the custom, the new contract should have been signed in 2017 but not done,” he added.
“We were running the units with wafer thin profits, which would often become unreal as we have to spend from hands. If so, the loans obtained from the banks and private money lenders were taking a huge toll on us. Many owners were being forced to commit suicide because of the burden of loans,” said K Eswari, a power loom unit owner from Karuvalur, whose close relative took such extreme step in 2015.
R Devathammal, the mother of the deceased Murugesan, told TOI: “The unit of her son was continuously incurring loss, mainly due to the inadequate weaving charges given. With Rs 18 lakh loan default in a nationalized bank, Murugesan succeeded in suicide bid in third attempt. Now, her family was struggling to save a two-acre property from being auctioned by the bank, for better future of his two children.”
T Suresh Kumar, another unit owner said “If the right weaving charges were being paid, we would not have been in the position where struggling to repay the banks loans.”
It was not just Murugesan, many owners were in the same position. Even one and a half months ago, Sampath, an owner, attempted suicide in Palladam, said the sources.
So, the job working units association has urged the central and state government to waive off the bank loans obtained by the unit owners. In Tirupur district alone, the total loans would come around Rs 70 crore. And importantly, at least this year, a new contract should be signed by increasing weaving charges, without which they cannot survive, said the petitioners.
When contacted, S Sundaramoorthi, lead bank manager, Tirupur district told TOI: “They will write to the controlling offices of the respective banks and they will try to get them a reasonable time to repay the loans.”
