Riots spell disaster for industries in Panchmahals

vadodara: the closure of about 80 per cent industrial units in panchmahals district in central gujarat in the wake of the train carnage at godhra on february 27 and its aftermath is likely to spell a disaster for the owners of these units. according to bhupendra parikh, vice-president of the forum of industries association & chambers, production and trading have come to a standstill due to the riots which resulted in the blockage of huge amounts of money.talking to tnn on sunday, parikh, who owns an engineering unit near jarod on vadodara-halol highway, said that 80 per cent of the total workforce in about 1,200 units located in the district have gone back to their native places and are too scared to return. he said workers belonging to the minority community are so frightened that they have stopped coming out of their houses, forget reporting to work. even owners of some industrial units have not bothered to inquire about the fate of their units. one reason behind this was the imposition of curfew in these areas. halol, kalol, godhra, lunawada, santrampur and kadana towns were the worst hit in the riots. harish sheth, managing director of kalol-based gujarat setco clutch limited, told tnn that soon after the eruption of violence most workers fled to their native villages bringing production to very low levels. his unit supplies clutches to big names like the tatas and also exports them to the uk and us among other countries. sheth put the production loss at his unit due to large-scale absenteeism at rs 1.25 crore. the thin presence of workers in other units in the district too have affected output. according to former deputy union minister of commerce and former mp from godhra parliamentary constituency shantibhai patel, most industries bore the brunt of the flare-up. both parikh and patel put the production loss in panchmahals district alone at several hundred crores of rupees. several industries located here are major contributors to the country''s export basket, said parikh. the movement of raw material and finished goods was affected due to the disruption of transportation services, said parikh, adding that the non-arrival of raw material will adversely affect production. parikh, however, said that industries could make up for the production loss by working overtime provided the situation becomes normal. if normalcy does not return early it could hit export and domestic orders. the halol-kalol belt, which attracted a large number of industrialists from mumbai and other parts of the country soon after the discovery of crude oil in the ankleshwar oilfields in the 60s, is sensing tough times ahead which could have a deep impact on the economic growth of central gujarat. general motors, abs plastic and safari are some of the well-known companies which have their units in the district. it is feared that several industrialists may be forced to think over the option of shifting their units to safer places like chhatisgarh, hyderabad and bangalore. for the revival of these industries, parikh raised several demands including extension of the time limit by three months for the payment of income-tax and excise duty, raising the limit of letter of credit, banks deferring the recovery of interest amount by two months and extending loans to industries towards payment of employees'' salaries.