The government has decided not to sell the loss making National Textile Corporation (NTC) but instead plans to nurture the ailing state-owned textiles firm back to health by disposing of its land worth Rs 1,750 crore in Uttar Pradesh. Textile Minister Santosh Gangwar at the conference said that they are committed to not sell National Textile Corporation.

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 already wasted Rs 500 crore.

Textile Minister had to fruitful discussion with the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on the issue and arrived at a decision that they will dispose of/sell the land worth Rs 2,000 crore of BIC and Rs 1,750 crore of NTC (to generate revenue).

However, Textiles Secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda said that as 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. They are in discussions with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the state government has tentatively agreed that they will help them in disposal of the land.

Textile Minister 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 for which a sum of Rs 50 crore is set aside.

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 percent to 90 percent.

On the eight mega clusters announced in the Budget, he said that 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.

The Textiles Ministry is exploring the option of building showrooms at prime locations to help marketing of its products.