Coimbatore: Seeking steps to reopen all the 23 National Textile Corporation (NTC) mills in the country, trade union members staged a protest in front of the south tahsildar office here on Wednesday. The mills were closed during the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020.
Led by Sachin Mohan Ahir, chairman, Save NTC Movement, which is the federation of 23 trade unions, sought the revival of mills. There are seven NTC mills in Tamil Nadu and five of them are in the district. He said more than 20,000 workers were affected by the closure of the mills and many of them hadn’t received the 50% salary as assured by the government.
“On one side, the Centre is promising to increase employment. But it is refusing to reopen NTC mills. The government should shun the plans to privatize the mills and reopen them. Otherwise, we will protest in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence in Ahmedabad,” he said. Coimbatore Lok Sabha MP P R Natarajan said the workers would hoist black flags in front of their houses on January 26 as part of the ongoing protest. “Black flags will be hoisted in the mills, besides staging a sit-in.” He said they would meet the Prime Minister during the budget session and urge him to take steps to reopen the mills.
Trade union members of the mills in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh took part in the protest.
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