Even as the Narayanasamy-headed Congress government is making a move to prevent the closure of the century-old Anglo French Textiles (AFT) mills, the Industries Department has announced a six-month lay-off in another old textile mill -- Sri Bharathi -- causing concern among its 200 workers.

According to an official, “The move had been contemplated for quite some time since the accumulated loss of the mill had touched ₹123.12 crore. A techno-economic study of Bharathi Mills conducted by the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA), Coimbatore, had concluded that the mill is beyond any kind of financial revival.” The machinery in the mill is old and has to be replaced completely. The buildings are more than 100 years old and therefore, to house the new machinery,e new buildings have to be constructed by demolishing the old ones, the official said.

Trade Unions termed the lay-off move as a prelude to closing the mill on the lines of the AFT mill. A. Selvakumar, president of Bharathi Mill Workers Union said that Swadeshi and Bharathi mills, which once had a combined workforce of 4,500 workers had now a meagre 200 workers on their rolls.

“The mill has stopped functioning since March 2019 and no constructive steps were taken by the government to restart the mill. Even now, the workers have not been apprised of the move by the management while the trade unions got to know of the development only through a communication from the Labour Department. Workers are now caught in the crossfire between Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bediand and Chief MinisterV. Narayanasamy over the decision to close down the mill,” he said.

The Inspector of Factories has already made it clear that the mill cannot be run in its present condition as most of the machinery has become obsolete. The Inspector of Factories under Section 40 (2) of the Factories Act prohibited the use of the shop floor buildings, including the blow room, carding section, drawing section, simplex machine area, ring frame machine area, cone winding area, dye house, boiler house, yarn godown etc. as the buildings are in conditions that pose imminent danger to human life and safety.

The management has failed to disburse the salary for the last 13 months to the workers, while provident fund, gratuity and other benefits have remained suspended since 2013.

An expert committee constituted by the government to study the viability of restoring the financial health of the State-owned undertaking had recommended that the mill be closed immediately. The mill had undertaken job conversion work on a contract basis from 2014. However, since the mill was unable to function to its full capacity, losses were incurred.