Here, I have got a letter from an employee of a bank in Mumbai the bank of India. He says that 40 temporary employees of that bank are going to be thrown out because some mechanical device is about to be introduced. So, this is a question which should be very carefully considered by this house with all the seriousness which it deserves. We are not prepared to discuss rationalisation in abstract. Gentlemen who know much about it may do well not to waste their time in telling us about the advantages of modernisation and development of machinery and all that. They are well known. We are discussing a concrete problem in a concrete situation. Now, let us turn for a moment, to the textile industry, the largest industry, occupying an importat position even on a world scale, an industry for which our people have fought with sweat and tears against the British. It employs nearly 7 lakhs of workers. In this industry, rationalisation is being introduced or is proposed to be introduced in all the centers. Nobody will say that this is done in the interest of production, because only last year, we heard cries of over production raised even in this house. Textile is one of the few sectors where the targets laid down in the five year plan have been exceeded. Its problem, therefore, was not one of fall in production, but of over-production. And in 2003 we saw the picture of total or partial closure of mills. At that time, our government, of course, standing between the capitalists and the workers, did not remain quiet. After an exhaustive speech that my hon. Colleague, the finance minister, has made, I have very little to say. The reason for the modification of the award have also been given in the statement annexed to the order of the ministry of labour dated 24 August, 1998, and placed on the table of the house.
