MUMBAI, May 16: The board outside mentions `ISO 9002' as the target to be achieved. Inside, few machines are on. Most of the workers are just sitting around.

In the timekeeper's office, a worker punches out, half day at 12 noon. ``I shan't come back today. What is there to do?,'' he signs off. For workers of the Tatas-owned Svadeshi Mills', manhours are spent among idle spindles, discussing the future of the mill as their means of livelihood. And gheraoing the management for salaries.

Yet another chapter on the slow death of the textile industry in the city is being written in this sprawling mill at Sion (E). Almost everyday this week the company has witnessed staff unrest. If it was the technical staff forming a ring around the managing director demanding his resignation on Monday and today, it was the workers ready to go on vacation demanding their salary under the leave-with-wages scheme on Wednesday.

In the Sion office, the air conditioner is not working. ``Is it the power, or have the workers stopped it deliberately?'' jokes an official. The mill owes the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Corp) a sum of around Rs 1.2 crore for power supply over the years. Any moment now, workers expect the fans and lights to go on the blink.

Svadeshi Mills, the last of the textile mills owned by the Tatas (its shares are owned by the Tata company, Forbes Gokak Ltd) is on the verge of a closedown fear workers. Running in losses for the past three years, the composite mill with a capacity to produce 1.5 lakh metres of cloth per day is hardly working at 20 per cent of its capacity today. Its 4000 plus workers and staffers get paid for idling during work hours and there are apprehensions on whether there will be a salary this month-end.

``We need a lot of money to put the mill back on its feet,'' says Percy Mistry, the managing director, even as he adds that he cannot off hand recall the exact losses incurred by it. Or even the actual amount that needs to be pumped into the mill. Officials and staffers, however, criticise the top brass for mismanagement.

For one, Svadeshi was perhaps the only mill in the city to sell developmental rights (DRs) over its surplus land to Surela Investments in 1993 for a sum of Rs 42 crore, of which only Rs 26 crore has accrued to the mill. ``What steps have been taken by the management to realise the balance?'' asks R J Mehta, president, Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha which represents the staffers of the company's head office at Fort.

A lot, answered Mistry. ``We have gone to our solicitors and are doing everything to get the money,'' he said, including seek the state government's help. Nothing much came off it and Mistry does not think the dues will be realised. The Rs 26 crore already obtained has borne no fruit since it was invested in second hand machines which require further funds for installation and use.

In another move to gain funds, the company recently decided to shift its head office at Fort to Sion and sell its 6800 sq ft office space in Bombay House. Negotiations with the MMS are on.

However, what officials find most disappointing is the silence of the Tatas in the matter. ``The Tatas must realise that they have risen from textiles. This is their mother industry,'' says an official, ``Rs 16 crore to be realised by Svadeshi, is peanuts for them. Why aren't they taking any interest in the mill?''

Others have wondered why another company, Surela Investments, was given developmental rights on the land, when Tata's own Tata Housing Development could have done it. Many in the mill still swear by the Tata credo for sincerity, quality and honesty. Numerous letters have been written by the unions to Ratan Tata, and officials have tried to meet him personally. To no avail.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.