Taking serious note of alarmingly increasing COVID-19 cases at JSW Steel plant and townships in Toranagal, Ballari district, S.S. Nakul, Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Ballari, issued an order on Monday restricting the movement of Jindal employees. He ordered JSW Steel to house all of its employees working in the Toranagal plant only in the Jindal township providing them with all the essential goods and services against payment or otherwise. The order shall be in vogue from June 18 to June 30.
Mr. Nakul, in the preface to the order, noted that the total number of cases as on date [connected to Jindal Steel plant in Toranagal] stood at 144 [all from single source] and the primary contacts under quarantine were 516. Mentioning JSW Steel’s attempt for containing the spread of the infection by reducing its workforce for a period of five days ending on June 16, the officer felt the need of restricting the movement of the employees who could possibly spread COVID-19 in their villages after returning from the plant and issued the order exercising his powers vested in him under Section 34 (C) read with Section 34 (m) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
As per the order, all employees, direct or contractual, required for working in JSW Steel shall be housed within JSW township itself and there shall be no movement of such personnel from villages/ towns to JSW Steel plant. They shall move only between the township and the factory and shall not venture outside. Only the movement of goods vehicles, empty or carrying load shall be allowed to move from the factory premises to other places. Mr. Nakul also asked the JSW Steel management to ensure strict compliance to Standard Operating Procedure issued by the Union government on June 4 on the preventive measures to contain COVID-19. He also asked the steel giant to provide a report on daily basis on the situation in the plant and the township.
Though a considerable chunk of the JSW Steel employees stay in the township near the plant itself, a number of employees also travel from Ballari, Hospet, Sandur and other places daily.