Taking serious exceptions to the demand by a few individuals to completely shut down the JSW Steel Plant at Toranagal in Ballari district, where COVID-19 was spreading alarmingly, Ballari District Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BDCCI), a body of industrialists and traders, has cautioned the State government against complete closure of the plant.
In a June 20 letter to Heavy and Medium Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar, BDCCI president V. Ravikumar held that a complete closure would have an adverse impact on around two lakh people dependent on the steel plant.
“It is unfair to trouble the industry going by the words of some vested interests. JSW has followed every instruction and the procedures laid down by the State government and the district administration while tackling COVID-19, taking utmost care of its employees and managing its operations,” he said in the letter.
The steel plant, India’s largest one, had been free from novel coronavirus infection till lockdown was lifted. The first case of COVID-19 was reported from the plant on June 3, when a 35-year-old man (P-4,184) and an employee of JSW Steel working at Corex Plant on Toranagal campus tested positive for the disease.
The disease then spread like a wildfire inside and outside the campus forming the biggest COVID-19 cluster in the State and forcing the district administration to impose stringent containment measures. The management also joined hands with the administration by closing down the Corex Plant, the hotspot of the disease inside the campus, and asking its over 10,000 employees to work from home, apart from taking several containment measures.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul clarified that there was no direction from the district administration to shut down the entire plant. He said that a shutdown was mandated as per standard operating procedure issued by the Union government on June 4.
The plant yet continued to be a source of infection to many inside and outside as several employees from Hosapete, Ballari, Sandur and other cities and villages travelled to and from it, Mr. Nakul said. He, as Chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority, had to issue an order under Section 34 (c) read with Section 34 (m) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, restricting the movement of employees to JSW Township and the factory.
Meanwhile, a few people in the district demanded that the government completely shut down the entire steel plant to prevent the virus from spreading, just as it was done in the case of Jubilant Life Sciences at Nanjangud in Mysuru district where the disease had spread to many people from a single source, eventually leading to the closure of the entire unit.