Punjab allows cottage industries in non-containment areas of Ludhiana to resume ops

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday allowed cottage industries in non-containment areas of Ludhiana to immediately resume operations to support opening of bigger industries that are dependent on the smaller ones for components.

Resumption of operations in these small units, which normally have labour living on or in the vicinity of the premises, will be subject to requirements of access control and strict compliance with COVID Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), the chief minister said in a statement here.

Amarinder said that repeated requests had been received from industry associations to allow opening of industries with access control in non-containment zone of Ludhiana district, subject to adherence of all COVID SOPs/guidelines.

State Industry Minister Sunder Sham Arora had also suggested that such small units should be allowed to function in order to enable the bigger industries to start operations, he added.

The chief minister said he had been informed that industries in certain industrial areas in Ludhiana are not yet open despite being permitted to operate under the recent guidelines allowing industries falling in industrial estates, focal points, designated industrial areas as per Master Plan of Ludhiana to resume operations.

Ludhiana is an industrial city having approximately 95,000 MSMEs, offering employment to more than 10 lakh skilled and non-skilled industrial workers.

These workers belong to various states of the country, and as a result of the prolonged lockdown, have become unemployed and are facing great hardship, the chief minister noted.

Despite easing of restrictions, only 6,900 industries in Ludhiana have so far resumed activities, he said.

Many of the industries are not able to start their work as they are dependent on various small and tiny cottage industries which provide them components and most of these small/tiny/cottage industries are located in mixed land use areas as per notified Master Plan, the chief minister said.

The micro/tiny industries in mixed land areas constitute about 50 per cent of the industrial set-up in the district, and employ about 5-6 lakh workers.

Established about four decades back, these have been granted industrial connections and, for all practical purposes, these mixed land areas are considered as industrial pockets for green industries, the statement said.