As many as 676 industrial units have been made functional to date across Jammu and Kashmir out of a total of 1127 units allowed to resume operations by the Department of Industry and Commerce, in order to maintain the supply of essential commodities and services to people, even as Centre clarified on Thursday evening that no fresh licence or statutory approval is required for resumption of permitted activities during the lockdown period.
“An industrial activity, allowed to operate prior to the lockdown, needs no fresh statutory approval, once it has been included as a permitted activity under the consolidated revised guidelines, and has complied with the SOP on social distancing,” said Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla in a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories.
View: Official Order by Home Secy to Chief Secys
This effectively renders the entire process of the concerned departments of the States and UTs issuing fresh permissions to the industrial units exempting them from lockdown effective from April 20, irrelevant, even though the Jammu and Kashmir Department of Industry and Commerce had permitted a total of 1127 industrial units to resume operations till date subject to compliance of SOPs.
According to the official documents accessed by The News Now, 783 industrial units belonging to Jammu division and 344 belonging to Kashmir division, have been allowed to operate till Thursday. These include the units allowed to manufacture essential commodities and their packaging material, and also the units allowed to operate under Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
Further, all the 344 industrial units in Kashmir have become functional, while in Jammu, 332 units have been able to resume operations. That is, 676 units have become functional to date.
Also, the official documents reveal that the total number of labourers allowed to work in these industrial units across the UT stands at 13085, of which, 5145 are residing within the unit premises.
The industrialists in Jammu have praised the efforts of Anoo Malhotra, Director, Industries and Commerce, Jammu, saying that she has been approachable and supportive in these hard times of COVID 19 pandemic.
“On one hand, resumption of operations of industries has reduced the losses of unit holders, and helped them be of service to the people in their own way, on the other hand, it has also helped to engage thousands of labourers in work and be provided with food and essentials, thus preventing their migration to their own states/UT,” says one of the industrialists.
However, in a late evening development, the Centre clarified that its guidelines on allowing industries have wrongly been interpreted, leading to some apprehensions being raised in the media and by some companies having manufacturing facilities.
“It is emphasised that subject to compliance with the SOP on social distancing, no fresh licence or statutory approval is required for resumption of permitted activities during the lockdown period. An industrial activity, allowed to operate prior to the lockdown, needs no fresh statutory approval, once it has been included as a permitted activity under the consolidated revised guidelines, and has complied with the SOP on social distancing,” Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said.
“Also, no separate or fresh permissions are required from authorities for industries already permitted to operate prior to April 15, in areas falling outside containment zones,” he added.
Bhalla also said that no legal action will be taken against the CEO of a company, nor a factory will be sealed, in case an employee tests positive for COVID-19.
“The wrong interpretation of the guidelines has led to three wrong apprehensions: that States may take legal action including imprisonment of CEO in case a COVID-19 positive employee is found in the factory; that in such a situation, the premises of the factory would be sealed for 3 months; and that in case of non-compliance of precautionary measures, the factory may be closed down for two days and maybe allowed to restart after full compliance,” he wrote in the letter to all chief secretaries.
“I would like to clarify that there is no such clause in the consolidated revised guidelines and therefore there is no basis for such misplaced apprehensions,” Bhalla said.
He added the consolidated revised guidelines for the lockdown should not be misused by anyone to harass the management of any manufacturing or commercial establishments.
“In light of the above, I would like to request all State and UT governments that the industrial field establishments and field offices may be apprised of the guidelines of lockdown measures which should be followed to prevent the spread of the epidemic. These should not be misused to harass the management of any manufacturing or commercial establishments,” he said.
The union home secretary’s communication to the states and UTs came hours after he along with secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra talked to industry associations to allay their apprehensions about the guidelines.
In Jammu and Kashmir as well, the industrialists had flagged several issues faced by them such as movement passes for vehicles and staff members, e-passes, inter-district movement on the basis on passes issued by one district authority, movement of raw material and finished goods, production of raw material to essential commodity and so on.
One of the Jammu-based industrialists mentions, “Since all of the industries are not engaged in production, the authorities should forgo their fixed electricity charges for the lockdown period. They should also consider reducing interest in case of late electricity bill payment from 18% to 6%, and waiving off electricity duty leviable at 10%.”
He adds, “The authorities should waive off SGST leviable on the GST bills, and also the interest against loans for the lockdown period. Allowing a moratorium of six months for repayment of such loans is an option that can be mulled.”
Further, he suggests an interest subvention at 3% for all loans availed by the MSMEs/other units to provide relief to the unit holders affected by the lockdown.
Meanwhile, the official document reveals that many of the issues have been resolved, such as allowing the operation of a particular line of activities – spice units, cold storage units, milk and milk processing units, packaging material units, mattresses, agrochemicals, medicines, packaged water units, edible oil units, food processing units, sanitiser, heating pad, water beds, etc.
Also, the units not falling in the indicative list of essentials, but wishing to resume operation with the labour residing within the unit premises, which will also discourage their migration, are being examined on case to case basis and resolved.
Anoo Malhotra, DIC Jammu had said that she’s hopeful of resolving the pending issues soon with the cooperation of district administrations and other concerned authorities.
Furthermore, under the supervision of DIC Jammu, General Managers of Jammu division are conducting inspections on regular basis to check whether Standard Operating Procedures are being met out by the unit holders.
The Director has asked for the strict observance of norms, failing which, permissions shall be withdrawn immediately.
She has also instructed all the unit holders to distribute brochures about Coronavirus related preventive measures among the workers and managerial staff.
Also: Read my article at THE NEWS NOW
676 out of 1127 industrial units allowed to function amid Lockdown resume operation
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