POWERLOOM INDUSTRIES IN BHIWANDI

Eight lakh-odd powerlooms of Bhiwandi that made deafening noise until 10 days ago have now gone silent. On November 6, the Bhiwandi Powerloom Sangharsh Samiti went on a strike in protest against the hike in power tariff by Torrent Power Limited, a franchise of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd that provides electricity to Bhiwandi. Torrent hiked power tariff by 50 per cent to Rs 4.80 per unit three months ago. "This is an unreasonable hike," said a 28-year-old powerloom owner Azim Ansari. Officials at Torrent Power said they were charging according to the rates fixed by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission, which is at par with other districts where powerlooms exist. "We are just the executing body," said an official spokesperson. Bhiwandi, just second to Ichalkaraji in Kolhapur in textile production with annual turnover of Rs 350 crore, consumes 3,000 lakh units of power annually. It has been a blacklisted town in the MERC's list for power theft. "A whopping 97 per cent of power was stolen by the powerloom owners here. Only after 2007, when Torrent came in, did the theft stop," said a senior MERC officer. While the powerloom owners, some willingly and others forcibly, supported the strike and participated in numerable morchas organised in the town best known as Manchester of Maharashtra, it is the 10 lakh-odd daily wage workers who are suffering the consequences. For 35-year-old Sriram Kumar, a powerloom worker at Bhiwandi, a week-long strike means loss of Rs 2,500 (on an average, a worker makes Rs 250- 50 a day for a 12-hour shift) and indefinite anxiety. "I haven't slept well since the mill owner informed me about the shutdown. I have worked in Bhiwandi for over a decade. This is the first time I witnessed a strike." Back home in Ghorakpur in Uttar Padesh, Sriram's family is clueless. "I haven't told anyone. I cannot return home. I am the only earning member and have to fend for seven people," he added.