Textile mills shocked by cotradicting promise

Tag : Industry Textile
In a press release here today, Dr Srinivasan said the StateElectricity Minister had requested the Industry Associations andHT/EHT consumers to co-operate for a 24 hour power holiday in aweek and ensured uninterrupted power supply for the remainingdays.On the contrary, the textile mills in various parts of theState had received intimations from TNEB, announcing 2 hours shutdown during day time and instructing not to draw power for 4 hoursdaily apart from adhering to 24 hours power holiday in a week, hesaid.

It resulted to a minimum of 60 hours power shut down period everyweek, he said adding that this would work out to minimum 36 percent capacity utilisation loss, loss of jobs to lakhs of people andheavy cash loss for the textile industry.

Dr Srinivasan said the industry which had been already reelingunder severe recession due to soaring cotton price, high bankinterest rate and high transportation cost was saddled with severepower shortage in the State. The TNEB had never distributed thepower shortage uniformly across the State, he added.

He said the industry had no other option than closing the shuttersfor the remaining period and leaving lakhs of people jobless, andthis trend would soon lead to industrial unrest.