Badriprasad Dubey, Ramchandra Chavan, Suryakant More, Sakharam Raul and B R Chaudhari launched their stir on March 22 to protest the government's indecision on the issue. Today, Rane replied to a debate on a related calling attention motion given by Shishir Shinde, Arvind Savant and others, who alleged that mill owners had been flouting rules for the last several years, making their pile of crores and throwing mill workers onto the streets. Leader of the Opposition Chhagan Bhujbal alleged that several high ranking officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) were favouring mill owners by granting them permission to develop excess land.

``It is true that the excess mill land is being misused.The government will initiate such a stringent action against all errant mill owners so that no mill owner will dare to flout any rule in future. If any BMC officials are involved in permitting illegal development of excess mill land, punitive action will be taken against them,'' promised Rane.

Earlier, Minister of State for Industries, Prabhakar More said the government has appointed a committee headed by Industries Minister Leeladhar Dake to find out a final solution to various problems of ailing cotton mills and mill workers in Mumbai. ``The committee will ensure that the mills continue to operate and workers are not deprived of their livelihood. The committee will submit its report on or before April 5 and the government will immediately take a decision. This will be the final committee appointed by the government in this matter,'' More assured.