Industrialists seek steps to rev up biz

Coimbatore: With chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami set to decide on the regulations for the next phase of the lockdown, industrialists in the city have written to him, seeking increased public transport between districts, flexible e-pass facilities for industries and full-fledged functioning of banks.
In their letter to the CM on Wednesday, representatives of the Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Association (Focia), said as the lockdown, complete lockdown and relaxations were announced alternatively, micro and small industries in the city were hit badly.“There have been inordinate delays in receiving and sending materials,” the letter said.
One of the main issues they represented pertained to labour. “The state should allow bus and train facilities to bring back workers from other districts and states.”
J James, a coordinator of Focia, said while big industries could arrange buses to bring their workers back, micro and small units couldn’t.
“We will have to shell out more than Rs 15,000 to bring back workers in a bus that can accommodate 40 people. To tide over the crisis, the state government should resume public transport services,” said S Surulivel, another coordinator.
“Workers have to travel to other districts for assembling machines, post-sales service and also for marketing. Now the provision of e-passes through the district industries centre has been stopped and we are finding it difficult to obtain them. E-pass mechanism for industries should be made flexible. Banks should resume full-fledged operation with necessary safety measures,” the letter said.
“As there are only 50% of staff in banks, there are delays in processing loan documents and even getting account statements. This is also causing hurdles to industrial units,” James said.