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SIMA member mills to halt production on Oct 22

21
Oct '08

The announcement made by the Government of Tamil Nadu on restriction of power usage by the HT industries would increase power cut from 40% to 50%. Therefore, the member mills of The Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) have decided to stop the production on 22nd October 2008 demanding the implementation of HSD Oil Model, utilise around 3500 MW idle capacity of generators available with the industry on a need basis and supply uninterrupted power to sustain their survival in the current scenario.

The member mills were hoping that the Government would consider their appeal of HSD Oil Model favourably and make an announcement suitably. Unfortunately, the Government has announced 40% demand cut, 40% energy cut and 4 hours peak hour restriction (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.) for the HT industries.

In other words, though the Government has streamlined the unscheduled / scheduled shut downs, the new announcement made by the Government has increased the power shortage from 40% to 50%. This announcement would make the highly labour intensive textile industry to throw several lakhs of people out of jobs leading to industrial and social unrest.

Therefore, the SIMA member mills have no other option but to go ahead with the stoppage of production on 22nd October 2008 to highlight the Government the seriousness of the difficulties faced by the industry and its struggle for survival
Dr.K.V.Srinivasan, Chairman, SIMA has appreciated the announcement made by the Government of Tamil Nadu streamlining the distribution of power shortage across the State for all the consumers specifying the exempted consumers.

He has hoped that the Government would follow the announcement in letter and spirit and enforce the power cut in all multinational companies which have been ensured uninterrupted power supply as per the MoUs and also Chennai which has been all along enjoying either uninterrupted power or the benefit of 1 to 1½ hour power shut down as against upto 10 hour power shut down in all other parts of Tamil Nadu.

SIMA has appealed to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to extend his helping hand and give a lease of life to the textile industry which has been ailing for the last one year due to very many factors, particularly power shortage increasing from 20 to 40%.

Dr.Srinivasan has mentioned that though a majority of the mills have finalized or in the process of finalizing the bonus for their workers, many of them are not in a position to disburse the bonus amount due to heavy financial crunch.

SIMA chief has pointed out that the entire textile industry providing direct and indirect employment to almost 100 lakh people in the State, accounting 60% of the yarn export, 50% of the spinning capacity, consuming 110 lakh bales of cotton, accounting 1/3rd of the textile size in the country would come to a grinding halt in the absence of a concrete solution for the power shortage.

Therefore,he has urged the Government to immediately announce the implementation of HSD Oil Model in the State to overcome the present crisis. The State has around 4,000 MW captive power generation capacity lying idle.

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