Lok Sabha passes bill to free NTC from rent control laws

02 Dec '14

2 min read

Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, has passed the Textile Undertakings (Nationalisation) Laws (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2014. The Bill replaces an Ordinance promulgated by the Government of India in October this year.

The Bill frees the National Textile Corporation (NTC), which has property of around Rs 25 lakh crore, from rent control laws. The Bill says there is a need “to protect public investment in the acquired textile undertakings to explicitly clarify the status of such vesting of the lease-hold rights in the central government.”

Moving the Bill in the house, Minister of State for Textiles (Independent Charge) Santosh Kumar Gangwar said “NTC mills are turning around and government is committed to turning them around.” He added that “The bill will help to run NTC smoothly so that in future there is no complaint against the running of NTC.”

In his reply to the debate on the Bill, Gangwar said, “We are not here to sell the land... We want to revive the mills. We want to make a package for the revival.”

“We need to evolve various ways and means to run the mills. It is our objective to give employment to more and more people,” said Gangwar.

He informed that the Government would soon come up with a new textile policy.

NTC was set up as a public sector enterprise in 1968 for managing the sick textile undertakings in the private sector that were taken over by the Government. Initially, the NTC managed 16 textile mills. This number has now grown to 119. However, only 23 of these 119 mills are currently operational. (RKS)

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