Shortage of labour, lack of demands hits industries in Uttarakhand

The industrial sector in Uttarakhand suffers very badly amid nationwide lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus. As labourers rush back to their hometowns, industries also face a shortage of manpower.

Dehradun:Industries in Dehradun are unable to prosper with a shortage of labour and lack of demand from customers in the market amid the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb COVID-19.

The shortage of manpower arose because most of the labourers have rushed back to their respective villages due to the scare of the pandemic.

"People who are running small business are facing problems due to the shortage of labour. The production cycle has also been disturbed along with the wholesale market. Industries situated in Red Zones have been affected the most," said Indian Industries Association (IIA) President Pankaj Gupta.

"There has been a terrific disruption in industrialization and it will take time to bring it back on track," he added.

"There is a lack of raw material, liquidity and market in small scale industries, similarly, there is a lack of labourers in medium and large scale industries. Only 8000-9000 industries have opened and we have already incurred a loss of around Rs 15,000 crore," said Gupta.

"It is a good thing that we finally received permission to begin our operations. But, there is a lack of raw material and transport facilities. We are also facing payment issues and staff members are less," said Rishi Das, owner of Das Electronics.

Electronics, electrical goods, shoes, pen companies etc have been incurring heavy losses, producing only 30 to 40 per cent of their capacities at present.

Industries are also not receiving orders from major states like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Inputs from ANI

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