The recent statements of Union Textiles Minister Kanshiram Rana came in for severe criticism at a meeting of the Maharashtra Mofussil Textile Workers Federation here the other day.

The Centre plans to close down 83 of the 119 mills run by the NTC and this defeats the very objective of nationalising them, speakers at the meeting said. The policy decisions announced by Rana regarding the NTC mills will have an impact on the MSTC mills as well. The workers fear that none of the five NTC mills in Vidarbha and five in the rest of Maharashtra will survive. About 20,000 workers employed in these 10 mills will be rendered jobless. Similarly, the eight mills run by MSTC will face closure endangering the livelihood of another 10,000workers.

Textile workers leader Haribhau Naik, who presided over the meeting, flayed the policies of the Union Textiles Ministry. The mills have become sick, in the first place, owing to wrong policies and decisions of the government, he said.

All the sick units can be revived by modernising them from funds raised by selling the surplus land lying idle with the mills, he said. Improvements also need to be made to the management of the mills and the workers' participation sought to streamline operations.

The federation has threatened to take out a morcha of weavers during the winter session of the state Legislature at Nagpur. Before that, conventions of weavers in Vidarbha, Marathwada and western Maharashtra will be held to organise them and chart out the course of action, informs a release issued here by M N Dorairajan.