Mill workers protest move to sell excess mill land

MUMBAI, MARCH 31: To protest the government’s decision to allow textile mills to sell excess land, mill workers will hold a dharna at Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s official residence Varsha at 7 pm on April 4.

President of the Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti, Gayatri Singh, said the government has taken this step because efforts to revive the mills have proved futile. “The government has also said unions have agreed on the issue of VRS to workers. This is a blatant lie,” she said. “The government should frame a long-term policy for revival of textile mills. Giving mill owners permission to sell land is not the long-term solution,” she added.

On the government’s stand that the hi-tech industries set up on mill land may absord these workers, she said: “More than 40,000 workers are employed in the mills. Most of them are uneducated. How can they be absorbed in hi-tech industries?”