The Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) consisting of VIA, BMA, MIA, KIA, CII, DICCI jointly called a meeting with senior Government authorities / bureaucrats to discuss the challenges and issues faced by industries due to the Break the Chain situation today on zoom.
Ashok Dharmadhikari, Joint Director of Industries, Nagpur moderated the JCC hosting the maiden meet with the Govt Departments to clear the ambiguity to run the industries under various norms. He said the State of Maharashtra is worried with the spread of COVID-19 virus, therefore, the Government has issued guidelines and allowed only essential category units to operate includes like Hospitals, diagnostic centres, Clinics, pharmacies, Pharmaceutical companies, other medical and health services including supporting manufacturing and distribution units along with their dealers, transport and supply chain. Manufacturing and distribution of vaccines, sanitizers, masks, medical equipment, their ancillaries, raw material units and support services. Cold Storage and Warehousing services, Veterinary Services/Animal care shelters, groceries, Public Transport, etc. He said Agriculture related activities and all allied activities required to seamless continuity of the agricultural sector. E-Commerce only for the supply of essential goods and services, units producing raw material /packaging material for any essential services are allowed to operate.
He further said in the manufacturing sector, following units should continue to operate in various shifts and all the units that manufacture items needed for essential services as per Govt order to remain operational with full capacity as well as Export oriented units that need to fulfill export obligation.
For process units that cannot be stopped immediately and cannot restart without considerable time should be continued with a maximum 50% of workforce. These processes must not be net consumers of oxygen, unless producing items that are needed for essential services.
He stressed that for essential and non essential industries, units that provide accommodation to the their labour, working either in the same campus or in an isolated facility from where movement may happen in an isolated bubble, with only 10% of managerial staff coming from outside may continue to work and movement of staff outside the premises is not allowed till the end of this notification and such units may operate in various shifts.
Ravindra Thakare, IAS, Collector Nagpur said other issues related to non essential industries like packaging industries and supporting essential industries are allowed to operate their units. Commuting/to and fro of employees is allowed and industry should issue I-Card to each employee. He further said there is no need to take any permission from Govt to run their units, for those who have got permission earlier. He said we are unable to supply oxygen cylinders to industries due to heavy requirement by the hospitals/units under essential commodities. Considering medical emergencies and shortage of oxygen cylinders, he appealed to industrialists to return empty as well as filled oxygen cylinders to suppliers, those who are unable to run their units due to limited stock of cylinders.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar, IAS, Divisional Commissioner, Nagpur said these 15 days are very temporary phenomena and we are looking for cooperation, patience and support from industries. The guidelines are very clear, look at the guidelines, essential activities are allowed. Nobody from the Department will give permission or pass because this is a huge exercise and lot of inconvenience to both. He further said self certification and ID cards can be issued by essential sector units to their employees.
Rakesh Ola, IPS, SP, Rural, Nagpur said commuting of employees including bubble transport for all manufacturing units should be strictly adhered to guidelines set by GoM for safety of citizen. Units must follow all safety measures i.e. scanning of body temperature, sanitization, vaccination, testing employees, etc.
Amitesh Kumar, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Nagpur said State Govt has taken certain imperative emergency measures to control the spread of corona virus and to avoid further harsh consequences, units must issue I cards to the employees and to understand the social responsibility, units must follow all guidelines and minimum workforce can be allowed at work place.
Earlier at the outset, Suresh Rathi, President of VIA in his welcome address said we are continuously receiving calls from all our members, who are confused and had many queries. This meeting has been called to remove the confusion amongst the industrial fraternity like essentials and non essential units, export oriented or exporting units, the smaller units in supply chain also need to work request that they should be allowed to operate, accommodation facilities for in-house, industries to issue I card to workers to make working smooth, industries to take all such responsibility and support the administration.
Gaurav Sarda, Hon. Secretary VIA read out queries, which were raised by the large number of participants across Vidarbha and also summed up the session.
Atul Pande, Immd Past President of VIA said this is very important meeting for all industrial community of our region and also expressed thanks to the senior bureaucrats for addressing the members and clear the doubts of the industries and also requested industrialists to support the break the chain to prevent spreading of corona virus.
Prominently present were Dr Sanjeev Kumar, IAS, Divisional Commissioner, Nagpur, Yogesh Kumbhejkar, IAS, CEO, ZP, Nagpur, Gajendra Bharti, GM DIC Nagpur & JDI, Amravati Division, Bhanudas Yadav, RO, MIDC, Nagpur. Members from JCC attended by C G Shegaonkar, President – MIA, Sachin Jain. Secretary – MIA, Pradeep Khandelwal, President, BMA, Ranjit Singh Chairman – CII, Amar Mohite, President – KIA, Nishchay Shelke, President, DICCI Vidharbha Chapter, Nitin Shrivastava, Raymonds Ltd, Yavatmal, Madhusudan Roongta, President, MIDC Inds Association Chandarapur; Ashok Dalmia, Past President & Vijay Panpalia from Vidarbha Chamber Of Commerce, Akola; Pankaj Sarda & Raghav Sarda from Bhandara Metal Manufacturing Assn, Bhandara; Shakil Shaikh, Vidarbha Engineering, Gadchiroli; Vishal Agrawal, Past President from VPIA; Abhijit Kalambe, HR Head from M&M; Kirit Joshi, Director of Spacewood Furniture; Dushyant Pathak, Elkem South Asia Pvt Ltd; RVK Rao from NECO; Ish Mohan Garg, MD Calderys India Refractories Ltd., Nandkishor Sarda, Sharda Ispat; Sandeep Darwhekar, Electronics Association, Nagpur; Prashant Mohota, MD, Gimatex Industries Pvt Ltd, Wardha and from VIA, Pravin Tapadia, Rohit Bajaj, Dr Suhas Buddhe, Aditya Saraf, Pankaj Bakshi.
For those who were unable to attend our today’s meeting, here’s the link of recorded session.
