Gurugram: Small-scale industries may not reopen before May 3 as owners say they can’t meet guidelines

Of the 11 lakh industrial employees in the district, about 60% are engaged in small-scale industries, which work as feeder companies for big ventures such as Maruti, Honda and others.

The standard operating procedures (SOP) or the Covid-19 lockdown guidelines issued by the Haryana government have put many challenges before small-scale industries. Industry owners said they are unlikely to resume operations during the lockdown as the SOPS are not friends to their methods of operations.

Workers are seen at work inside a Textile company, at Udyog Vihar, Gurugram, India, on February 14, 2020.(Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Of the 11 lakh industrial employees in the district, about 60% are engaged in small-scale industries, which work as feeder companies for big ventures such as Maruti, Honda and others.

In light of the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown from March 25, which he later extended till May 3. However, the PM announced relaxations in resuming economic or business activities from April 20.

Industry owners had been waiting for resuming operations here but as Gurugram has been notified as a Red Zone due to the number of Covid-19 cases and several containment zones, they are rethinking options.

Firstly, owners say a major challenge for industry owners is the fear of FIR lodged against them, which is a provision in the SOP.

“In case an employee gets infected with Covid-19, the government will register a police complaint (FIR) against the industry owner and the infected person, and his or her dependants will be put in 14 days’ quarantine,” says the SOP.

VS Kundu, chief executive engineer of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority and the Covid-19 in-charge of Gurugram, said: “Two years of imprisonment can also be awarded in case an employee gets infected with coronavirus at factory unit during lockdown period. There were many challenges before the government. Keeping all these in view, detailed guidelines have been issued so that lockdown guidelines are followed perfectly as per MHA (Ministry of Human Affairs Government of India) orders. Industries should resume only with minimum employee strength of 25-30%, as well as following other guidelines such as social distancing, sanitisation, transportation responsibility of respective employees and their movement passes, health, etc. All these will be the sole responsibility of industry owners.”

Industry owners, on the other hand, say they prefer not to take risks lest their employees get Covid-19 infection.

Sanjiv Bansal, a Basai-based industry owner, said, “I have told my employees to wait for May when lockdown ends. We are small scale industry owners and we cannot follow the SOP guidelines which we believe a majority of industry owners in the district will be reluctant to do.”

Secondly, industry owners have been asked to upload pictures daily showing disinfection of plants, units, entry and exit gates, thermal screening of employees, social distancing guidelines being followed at their units, which owners say is not feasible.

Atul Jain, a Manesar-based industry owner, said: “We cannot run our unit if our employees sit one metre apart, more so while sitting down for work. It is impractical and the nature of our operations does not allow and our product will suffer. For clicking and uploading pictures onto government portals, we will have to permanently engage at least two employees. If we engage a lesser number of employees, as per the SOP, then why would we put two out of this already reduced strength towards work that would not benefit us? I believe the SOP guidelines are not suitable for our small scale business models. Rather, they are very risky in the current scenario. I’d rather wait for the lockdown to end before restarting operations.”

The third major issue, industry owners say, is the transportation of employees and products to and from Delhi.

“Most of the buyers of our product are from Delhi and they cannot continue to operate during lockdown. In the Capital, the lockdown might just continue longer. The SOP does not allow any relief in this regard. We will not resume operations and wait for lifting of lockdown,” said Deepak Maini, a Sector 37-based industry owner.

So far, there are six containment zones in Gurugram -- Devi Lal Colony, Sector 39; Sun City, Sector 54; Fazilpur village in Jharsa; Ward no, 11 Pataudi; Raipur village, Sohna. Till now, there have been 37 positive cases of Covid-19 from Gurugram.

The SOP does not give clarity on the industries and commercial establishments qualify to apply for passes.

TVSN Prasad, additional chief secretary, Industry department, Haryana, said, “Passes will be approved after scrutiny of applications by a committee as per the guidelines at local administrative level.”

As per the SOP, one can apply online at Saral Haryana portal and the applications were allowed to be sent to concerned committee for scrutiny and approval from April 19.