PM
Another Scheme to Appropriate Lands and Workers ’ Rights
MITRA Punjabis Struggle against MITRA at Mattewara
The central government has been talking about setting up mega textile parks in thousands of acres for the last few years . It says that countries like Bangladesh , China and Vietnam are ahead of us in this sector and that Mega parks are the need of the hour to compete with them , to provide employment and to attract huge FDIs . For this it brought PM MITRA - Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel Park scheme and allotted Rs . 4445 crores for the next five years . In the first phase , seven mega parks will be set up with Rs 1000 crore funds from the centre for each project . States should vie for the parks through the ‘ challenge method ’ - that is , a State gives the most subsidies to corporate companies and challenges the rest of the states to better it . In addition to this scheme , another Rs . 10,000 crores is allocated under PLI ( Production Linked Incentive ) scheme for the development of MMF ( Man Made Fibres ) sector . Reliance , the world ’ s largest company in the production of MMFs , which is on the move to increase its capacity is mere coincidence . Where are we Competing ? Bangladesh textile parks are already known as ‘ sweat shops ’ and news about poor facilities for the workers and frequent accidents in these parks is a regular thing . We have also seen that in China , workers have to live in shambles attached to factories and have to work long hours . Also , Bangladesh has given duty free access to USA and EU - no taxes of any kind in these parks for the exports and imports of goods from and to those countries . Competing with these countries is nothing but competing with them in exploiting the labour . Strengthening this fact , Textile Minister Piyush Goyal ordered the states to
August - 2022 ensure affordable power , land and ‘ effective ’ labor laws for the corporates .
SITP-Scheme for Integrated Textile Park
Textile park is not new to India . Already there is SITP scheme . Under this scheme each park is allotted a maximum of Rs . 40 crores from the central government and have an area of 25 to 75 acres . The center says it did not get the expected results and Mega parks are needed to pull more FDIs .
STPIs are fully industrial parks which means there is only exploitation of workers . More ‘ profits ’ ‘ demand ’ more exploitation which can be achieved in 2 ways : 1 . Reforming ( diluting ) the labor laws of the existing workers 2 . Bring more labour under their exploitation – possible by integrating everything from production to export and bringing all types of labour under their boots . Bringing production into a park demands vast acres of land and integrating warehousing , logistics , exports etc demands huge allocations from the government . Thus came the PM Mitra scheme with allocations of 1000 acres lands and 1000 crores budget for each park . So moving from SITP to MITRA , allocations have increased a whooping 25 to 40 times . How much will the exploitation increase ?
There is another problem with SITPs . Most of the control lies with the Center , thus acquiring land and other statutory clearances from state governments became a problem and some SITPs have been cancelled due to this . That is why this time the Center has placed critical responsibilities like land acquisition , electricity subsidies , effective labor laws on the states . A special purpose vehicle SPV formed by corporate , state and center in a PPP , will develop the Parks . The states should use the share of their rent collected on these parks for the development of these parks . That is these parks , developed with the public money , will themselves consume the rents they pay . In a word people do not get anything from them except offering cheap labour .
What is Inspiring ?
Telangana ’ s Kakatiya Mega Textile Park is an ‘ inspiration ’ for the PM MITRA parks . The Telangana government has allocated 1200 acres of land in the first phase which can be extended to 2000-3000 acres . 22 Companies have already made MOUs committing Rs . 3900 crore investment . Korea ’ s Youngone Company will be making the highest investment of 900 crores in 300 acres within this park .
The same Telangana State ( undivided Andhra Pradesh ) in 2002- 2003 set up the Sirisilla Textile Park to support the weavers of Sirisilla , a historically prominent weaving town which for a time , became notorious for weaver suicides . As this park is really meant for the development of the people , the allocations are a meagre Rs . 7.73 crore funds and 237 plots ( 5-10 acres ). After the formation of Telangana , the government announced that it will give all government orders and orders for Bathukamma sarees and for a while it did it . But now the government says production costs in the park are high and that it will only give orders for Bathukamma blouses only . As a result , the weavers were pushed into debt traps and they are forced to sell their looms for 2 lakhs , which they had bought for 7 lakhs . On one hand , the parks setup for the development of the people were ill funded and are made sure they die while on the other , the Mega parks for the corporates glitter with billions of funds . This is one example of the fate of workers in the
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