Members of the OTM Bachao Sangathan and the Virat Jan Kalyan Samiti have threatened to intensify their agitation against the State Government’s apathy and law court’s view to sell off the Odisha Textiles Mills (OTM) instead of establishing a textiles industry there as proposed earlier.
“A mass dharna is on at the OTM main gate since September 1. 2005. As of now 500 workers and workers have died and 27 others committed suicides at different times. During these years, the Government has filed affidavits in the court to renovate the OTM at least for three times while scrapping preceding proposals for its sale. lastly on March 2, 2017, the court has asked the Government to initiate a sale tender for the OTM.
We can’t handover an inch of land to anybody. We will intensify stir and the Government and the court will be responsible for loss of life and untoward incident,” said members of the two organisations.
The members urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to renovate the once largest cloth-making industry in Asia, established by his father and former
Chief Minister Biju Patnaik way back in 1946, at the earliest.
“The Chief Minister had on February 19, 1015 informed the court that a textile industry will be set up there. But it is disappointing that the court annulling an earlier decision has directed the Government to initiate tender process for sale of the OTM,” lamented Dipak Kumar Barik, Dulal Sen Swain, Saroj Kumar Nayak, Bijay Kumar Sahoo, Braja Sethi, Maheswar Dalai and Tarpan Ray in a statement.