New Delhi: The government on Monday said that "it is committed not to sell" the loss making NTC and plans to nurse the ailing state-owned textiles firm back to health by disposing of its land worth Rs 1,750 crore in Uttar Pradesh.
"NTC has 11 places in UP and British India Corporation Ltd (BICL) has 35. The matter has been pending since last 15 years and the government has wasted Rs 500 crore," Textiles Minister Santosh Gangwar said.
"I do not wish to blame anybody. I wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and met him. We had fruitful discussions on the issue. We will dispose of/sell the land worth Rs 2,000 crore of BIC and Rs 1,750 crore of NTC (to generate revenue)," he said.
However, Gangwar added: "We are committed to not sell National Textile Corporation." Textiles Secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda said: "Most of the land is leased by the state government. So unless the lease arrangement changes, it will not be possible to dispose of the land. We are in discussions with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the state government has tentatively agreed that they will help us in disposal of the land."
Gangwar also said that he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring handloom weavers in the purview of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to enhance their earning, but there were "difficulties" in attaining the objective.
He emphasised upon the need to take a fresh look at the National Textile Policy and reiterated that the government was in the process of framing the new policy.
Moreover, the Textiles Minister informed that he would launch the Pashmina Promotion scheme announced in the budget on October 8 in Ladakh.
"I propose to start a Pashmina Promotion Programme (P-3) and a programme for the development of other crafts of Jammu & Kashmir. I am setting aside a sum of Rs 50 crore for this purpose," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in the Budget earlier.
Gangwar further said the government has decided to increase the financial support for setting up a National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) centre in Srinagar from 50 per cent to 90 per cent.
On the eight mega clusters announced in the Budget, he said seven of these are under various stages of implementation, while the one in Varanasi is operational. The government had announced setting up of mega clusters in Varanasi, Surat, Bhuj, Lucknow, Bareilly, Burhanpur, Mysore and Trichy.
The Minister also highlighted that "children working on traditional vocations within their homes voluntarily should not be counted as child labourers," and demanded a change in labour laws in this regard.
Gangwar also said that the Textiles Ministry is exploring the option of building showrooms at prime locations to help marketing of its products.
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