Labour-intensive ferro alloys and sponge iron plants have landed in a Catch-22 situation with the COVID-19 dealing a heavy blow to the industry’s dreams of revival, as a majority of the workforce is migrant skilled and semi-skilled labourers from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, who are leaving for their native places in Shramik Trains or on foot.
The State and Central governments did not permit these migrant labourers to go back to their native places at the beginning of the lockdown, but are actively arranging public transport for them at a time when they are indispensable for reviving the industrial activity.
Talks with workers
Long parleys are on in Hindupur, Penukonda, Tadipatri and Gooty with the workers persuading them to stay back, but with no shelter, no money to feed themselves and having undergone the agony of staying away from family during lockdown, psychologically they are not in the right frame of mind to stay back.
Following the government partially allowing revival of operations, large industries like the Arjas Steel Private Limited and KIA Motors India Limited along with its ancillary units have begun functioning.
District Industries Centre General Manager Gurrala Sudarshan Babu points out manpower availability as a major issue for 390 industries allowed to function out of 460 in Anantapur district. Only 167 of them were able to come back on stream as of Friday.
As per the guidelines, reasonable safeguards have been put in place by the company, says Arjas Steel Managing Director Sridhar Krishnamoothy. "We are running the unit with 990 workforce against the normal of 1,709 and expect the finished first product to be out in another week," he tells The Hindu.
KIA Motors India has been doing only essential maintenance work and preparatory procedures with 300 to 400 staff for the scaled down restart of Seltos and Carnival cars assembly to meet the existing order countrywide.