Chakan industries given notices over positive workers

Association tells district administration that units cannot function when threatened with action, especially when they are taking all precautions

The industries have been allowed to use full workforce in order to revive the limp economy. When the operations commenced, a few workers tested positive, sparking a barrage of notices for Chakan industrialists. Panicked over warning of closure and now, the bosses have approached the district administration for a solution.

According to Federation of Chakan Industries (FCI), some senior officebearers of industrials units in the Chakan Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) were recently served a notice by the senior officials of Pune district administration on the charges that some of their workers have been found COVID-19 positive. Following these notices, the FCI members have claimed that they are taking various precautionary measures at their respective units. However, such notices have instilled concern among them as a constant calling out may lead them to pull down the shutters till the pandemic ceases.

The FCI representatives have held a meeting with the senior officials, including Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, to talk out these apprehensions.

Dilip Batwal, secretary of FCI, said, “Industries are the biggest revenue contributors for the government, which has also approved their functioning to revive the economy. We have been taking necessary precautions to make the environment safe. Even though all the industries have been screening their workers on a daily basis, there were some positive cases. The units have nothing to do with the spread of the virus and yet, the administration has shot alarming notices to us.”

A senior official of one such firm that has received the notice even gave an instance of how an employee contracted the virus. He had admitted his unwell mother to a hospital before coming to work. By evening, she had tested positive. The employee tested positive too — the fact being ascertained through contact tracing.

“Now, they have accused us of asking the employee to work even when his mother was positive. That was not the case. When the employee came to office, he did not know his mother had the virus. We feel we are being targeted unnecessarily,” the official said.

The industrialists also asked the reason behind such notices specifically being sent to them even as there have been cases among politicians, police and other government officials — who too perhaps arrived at work without knowing of their statuses.

“There should be uniformity in action,” an industrialist said on the condition of anonymity, adding, “There have been lot of government servants who tested positive, but have not been prosecuted. But if our workers contract the virus, we somehow are responsible. It is unfair, since we are taking a lot of precautions while running the show. If the harassment continues, we will have to shut the plants and it will end up causing losses to us and the government.”

Divisional commissioner Mhaisekar now wants to know what kind of notice was sent to these industrialists to have provoked such areaction. “But, if these were routine notices, they need not worry as it will be a part of the procedure. I will make sure that no industrialist is harassed while dealing with the pandemic,” he said.