Promises still remain unkept

KOZHIKODE: Though the government has announced an interim relief of Rs 5,000 for the Comtrust employees and promised to introduce a Bill for the takeover of the weaving factory in the next Assembly session, the workers of the factory are far from happy.   They have been on warpath for the past two and a half years after the factory was closed down citing financial loss.Once the pride of the city, the Commonwealth Weaving Factory was started by the Basel Missionaries in 1848. There were around 300 workers in the factory at the time of the closure. “Most of us are traditional weavers. After the closure of the Comtrust our lives are in complete ruin. We are deprived of everything, even the medical treatment under the ESI scheme,” Santhosh, a worker, said.Though the government gave `5,000 as interim relief to the workers during Onam last year, the promise of taking over the factory has not been fulfilled so far. As the factory and its campus value around `300 crore, the director board of the factory is still pushing for  selling the Comtrust. The factory is run by a trust with 48 percentage share being held by the director board members, 30 percentage by the Canara Bank and rest by dealers and managers. “The management is not interested in govt take over. They want to sell out the entire factory. Earlier, after months of protests and demands, the LDF government had brought an Ordinance for taking over the factory, but nothing happened. Now, this government is saying that a Bill would be introduced in the Assembly. Actually politicians are not interested in the takeover,” Shaju, a Comtrust employee, said.With hardly any maintenance works being carried out in the factory, several machines and the factory building itself is in a bad condition and there are allegations that it has become a haven for the anti-social elements. According to E C Satheeshan, Action Committee Convener, this is the last chance for the government to act on the issue. “We hope that the government would come up with the Bill in the Assembly this time around.” The agitation also suffered a setback when the CITU backtracked from the protests. On condition of anonymity one of the CITU members said, “many of the CPM leaders in the district have always taken a blackball attitude on the issue. As one of the CPM’s co-operative societies has already bought 45 cent of the Comtrust land for opening a tourism development society, the party is not at all interested in re-opening the factory.”