SURAT, May 18: Powerloom units continued to be closed in Pandesara and nearby areas for the third day in row on Tuesday. An uneasy calm prevailed in many an industrial estate, brought on by the heavy police bandobast and patrolling in the wake of the lynching of an Oriya youth on Saturday.Neither powerloom unit-owners nor workers are sure how long the units will remain closed as nobody has given any formal call for a bandh.The workers are apparently afraid to return to work because the police have intensified patrolling in the area, both to maintain law and order and to arrest workers involved in riots and attempt to arson. The Pandesara Police arrested 11 more workers from Pandesara, Patelnagar, Udhna-Magdalla Road, Govalak Khadi and Shantinagar areas on Tuesday.Oriya workers alleged that the police were not allowing them to enter the trouble-prone areas. A rally they had planned to take out from Khatodara was not allowed by the police on Tuesday; gathering of four or more persons is also banned under Section 144 of the CrPC in the Limbayat, Pandesara, Udhna and Sachin police stations areas.Meanwhile, the Textile Majur Sangathan submitted a memorandum to District Collector Sangeeta Singh alleging that while the unit-owners were exploiting workers coming from other states, the police were harassing them in different ways.An attempt was being made to brand all outsiders as criminals, the Sangathan alleged.The memorandum demanded that the police make public the IPC sections under which the owners have been arrested.
