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Let workers stay on premises if you have to operate, Mohali industrialists told
Mohali Industries Association criticises move, says workers can be transported from homes
Only those industrial units that provide accommodation to workers on their premises will be allowed to operate in the district during the lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak, deputy commissioner Girish Dayalan said on Monday. This is in accordance to the guidelines issued by the Union home ministry, even as local industrialists criticised the move.
Construction companies will also have to furnish a similar undertaking, Dayalan said.
Criticising the move, the president of the Mohali Industries Association (MIA), Yogesh Sagar said it was impossible to let the workers stay on the premises. “We have requested the administration to allow us to transport them as we have already suffered huge losses. Also, the workers staying nearby should be allowed to come on their own,” he said.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Girish Dayalan said with the spike in Covid-19 cases it was not possible to allow movement of workers. “We will allow industries and construction companies to operate only if owners submit an undertaking declaring that they will house the workers and labourers on their premises and will not allow them to go home.”
If transportation of workers was allowed, “we will have to allow opening of telecom industry where 400 to 500 workers work on a daily basis and if a single person gets infected in the group it may prove fatal,” he added.
Earlier in the day in a video conference with the additional chief secretary of the state, members of the Industry Association of Punjab requested that they be allowed to operate their industrial units.
The Punjab chief minister’s office, after the conference, empowered DCs to permit industrial units to function in non-containment zones in alignment with the government’s earlier orders and also according to the guidelines of the Union home ministry.
The DCs were also asked to facilitate opening of industrial units in non-containment areas by meticulously complying with the detailed instructions to this effect issued by the state government on April 18. All MHA guidelines and conditions should be strictly complied with by the district administration, the CM’s office added.
What the MHA orders state
Only such industry/ establishment which can make all arrangements for stay of workers within their premises and/ or adjacent buildings will be allowed to operate
Only such construction activity/ site where workers are available on site and no workers are required to be brought in from outside (in situ construction) will be permissible.
Stone crushers, mining of sand and gravel and its transport, sale outlets of cement, steel etc shall be permissible only to service the construction activities carried out after obtaining due permission GM Industries who shall verify all such applications and accord necessary permission to commence and shall also specify the hours of operation
The management of all these establishments shall be responsible for implementation of the directives and standard operating protocols (SOP) by MHA, as applicable to them
Any violations shall invite criminal proceedings under the Relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Indian Penal Code,1860
