Kerala govt plans to bail out reeling textile, weaving sector

Kochi: The Kerala state government is in the process of formulating a package to bail out the crisis-ridden textile and weaving sector in the state, according to Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony.

Commissioning the cooperative sector Priyadarshini Spinning Mills at Meenadom, Antony said his government is fully aware of the intensity and extent of the unprecedented crisis.

According to him, the only way to overcome the crisis is to modernise the system and use the latest technology in production. He hoped the new unit will be able to provide a model for other units in the industry.

Speaking on the occasion, the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) convenor Oommen Chandy said the progress of the textile mill is affected on account of political vendetta during the Left Democratic Front (LDF) rule. "Otherwise the unit, registered in 1994, would have been commissioned five years ago."

Kerala Cooperation Minister M V Raghavan stressed the need for cooperative sector banks to keep a strict financial discipline and take immediate steps to get themselves rid of rampant corruption. "More than Rs 12,000 crore is lying idle with the cooperative sector banks. Unless imaginative credit plans are formulated, especially for job creation, they will have to face mounting loss."

The Priyadarshini Cooperative Spinning Mills, one of the four sanctioned during the former UDF ministry, had fallen on lean days ever since the LDF came to power. One of the reasons was the difficulty in getting financial assistance from the district cooperative bank, which pointed out that the project, which planned for 3,000 spindles, was non-viable.

After a lull of more than five years, the unit got into a revival mode after the present UDF government came to power. With active involvement of Texfed and the State Cooperative Bank, the original project was revised and enhanced to 25,000 spindles.

The first phase of the project, which the chief minister commissioned yesterday, consists of 6,000 spindles. This will be enhanced to 12,000 and later to 25,000 during the second phase.