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This is an archive article published on April 22, 2020

Can’t allow industrial units permission to operate during night shifts: Ajit Pawar

"There is no question of allowing industrial units in Pune Metropolitan region as the central government has asked us to enforce stricter lockdown," Pawar told The Indian Express.

Pune coronavirus, coronavirus Pune, Pune coronavirus lockdown, Industries lockdown pune, pune city news, Ajit Pawar Pune Pawar said the state government has received revised lockdown guidelines from the central government regarding its enforcement.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday turned down a request to allow industrial units in Pimpri-Chinchwad Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation to function during night shifts.

“There is no question of allowing industrial units in Pune Metropolitan region as the central government has asked us to enforce stricter lockdown,” Pawar told The Indian Express.

Pawar said the state government has received revised lockdown guidelines from the central government regarding its enforcement. “Through the revised guidelines, the central government has asked us to enforce stricter lockdown to check the spread of the pandemic. And therefore we are following the guidelines strictly. The containment plan put in place in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad is part of our stricter lockdown guidelines. I had held a meeting with the divisional commissioner, district collector and municipal commissioners of both the civic bodies and told them to ensure lockdown compliance,” he said.

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Earlier, the Forum for Small Scale Industries Association, which represents nearly 5,000 industrial units in the Pimpri-Chinchwad-Bhosari industrial area, had urged the state government to allow it to start functioning during night shifts. “During a meeting with the divisional commissioner and district collector last week, we had urged them to allow the industries to start their manufacturing facility at least during the night shift. The logic behind starting the night shift was that there was less movement of people on roads and vehicles, and therefore chances of the virus spreading were low. Also, we had promised that we would ensure stricter adherence to norms like wearing of masks, keeping social distance and washing of hands,” said Abhay Bhor, president of the Forum.

Bhor said if the lockdown continued, lakhs of workers in the industrial area would not get their salaries. “For one month, the industries have sustained themselves. They have given salaries to their workers. But if the raw material they have purchased remains unused, they will have to make payment to their vendors and will have nothing left for their workers if no manuafcturing takes place. How will these industries pay salaries if they don’t earn anything,” asked Bhor.

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Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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