8216;Manesar lockout not to affect dispatch ops8217;

The stockyard at Manesar plant has inventory of about 26,000 units at present,he added.

The company had resumed dispatching cars from the stockyard to various dealers across the country on Friday. On Wednesday,violence broke out at the plant where a senior official was burnt alive and 100 others were injured.

The Manesar stockyard is also used for delivering cars produced at the company8217;s Gurgaon plant to various dealers across the country.

Yesterday,the violence-hit company declared an indefinite lockout at its Manesar plant,the first such instance in its history,but firmly ruled out the possibility of shifting operations to Gujarat.

8220;There is now a lockout. To me,what is more important is safety of my colleagues than producing some cars to make some money,8221; Maruti Suzuki India MSI Chairman R C Bhargava had said at a press conference here.

Asked how long the lockout will continue he said,8221;Maruti is not closed8230;we will be very inefficient if we take six months. I don8217;t think we are that bad8230;we will start at Manesar.8221;

The company also said it was completely overtaken by the 8216;Tsunami-like8217; violence that it had not anticipated and announced they would not employ casual labour from March next year in production related operations,although they would be hired for 8220;non-valued added8221; work like cleaning,security,canteen services,loading and unloading.

MSI also said hiring of the casual workers would be done directly by its HR division,instead of outsourcing it to a contractor as was done earlier.