The Confederation of SIDCO Industrial Associations, Chennai region MSMEs, that has an annual turnover of about ₹26,250 crore, has expressed its disappointment over only industries in select areas being permitted to resume operations from May 7. Industries from Thirumazhisai, Thirumudivakkam and Kakkalur have been permitted to function.
"When the government permits large companies like Hyundai, Ashok Leyland and Nissan Renault to resume operations, while denying permissions to tier II and tier III units in industrial estates in Ambattur, Thirumullaivoyal, Guindy, Perungudi, and Villivakkam, it creates anxiety in the minds of entrepreneurs who look to resume operations at the earliest, given their losses in the last two months,” said A.N Sujeesh, president, Ambattur Industrial Estate Manufacturers' Association.
A delayed resumption of operations will result in there being no disbursement of salaries for April 2020, creating a negative impact on MSME clusters in this part of Tamil Nadu, he said. “With original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) gearing up to resume operations, there are real possibilities of orders being placed with us for units in other functional clusters. This will lead to a loss of orders and difficulty in retaining existing clients,” added Mr. Sujeesh.
Letter to govt.
Bakul M. Patel, president of the SIDCO Industrial Estate Villivakkam Manufacturers’ Association, had a similar response. He said, "We have written to the government. We are yet to get permissions."
S. Viswanathan, president of the Perungudi Industrial Estate Manufacturers’ Association, said that there were over 120 firms in the estate and they too had not been permitted to resume operations.
The associations have also requested the State government to allow MSMEs within the industrial estates to operate with 50% staff strength, implementing the minimum stipulated SOPs with reference to access control measures, as laid down by the Central government. They have also asked for a simple set of SOPs to be framed for MSMEs that should include one-time passes for workers/employees in other districts to travel and re-join work and posting of ESIC doctors in industrial estates to certify workers, among others.
