Punjab business houses cry for immediate attention amid coronavirus, farmers protest

Besides significant health concerns, the coronavirus pandemic has left a global impact with the majority of industries and economies struggling hard to survive with disturbed supply chains, layoffs, employees mindset. Still, there are a few industries for whom the outbreak has come as a boon. While comparing the pre-Covid and post-Covid scenario, Suneet Kochhar, Director, Khanna Paper Mills, said that these were altogether two different eras in recent times the world had seen. Khanna Papermill is Asia's largest production of recycling paper in one place.

During the pre-Covid era, there were a different set of problems. Still, Industry was running while during coronavirus pandemic there exigencies resulting in shutting down of plants, there had been layoffs and other issues depending upon the urgency.

"But the most important thing which I have observed is the change in the mindset of employees, we have people working in Amritsar who hails from Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Gujrat, and other far off states but now they want to work near their native places, close to their families which is going to be a  key challenge in future," Kochhar said. 

Talking exclusively about the paper industry he said a segment of their Industry correlates directly or indirectly with the education industry while the other section deals with the newsprint. He said, "School and colleges are still closed, so there is no demand of paper, newspaper industry saw a sharp decline in revenue generation and low circulations, leading to low demand of newsprint," said he. Suneet said their plants dealing with education and the newspaper industry were struggling. 

He said their unit was operating at 50% capacity, and their production had gone down by 40 % to 45 % in recent times, and over 4000 containers of import and export were struck at Ludhiana dry port due to rail blockade. "It's a new challenge for us with Diwali festival around the corner and no solution in sight," he said. 

He said manufacturing units were global competitive units, and bottlenecks like lockdown, strikes, rail blockade disturb the business sentiments and especially adversely impact the exports. Giving an example, Director Khanna Paper Mills said, "If my product doesn't reach Sri Lanka or I am unable to meet their demand due to any reason, then the buyer in Sri Lanka has the option to procure from Malaysia or other Asian countries, which is a big issue and a key challenge to stay afloat in the global business." 

He said the nearest port in the region was Gujrat, and if the railways were not operating due to any number of reasons, the supply chain gets disturbed and impacts the overall Industry. Stressing to connect the proposed dedicated freight corridor with India's first Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari, he said till now the plan for the dedicated freight corridor was up to Ludhiana, but it should have been extended up to ICP, Attari for better logistics with Afghanistan, Iran, trade. 

"Railways is still considered as the cheapest and most effective logistics which should be strengthened at any cost, and a dedicated freight corridor is a part of that," he said while expressing hope that government would give good news to the industrialist by announcing the dedicated freight corridor up to ICP, Attari which would help boost trade with Central Asian countries. When asked about the ongoing farmer's agitation, he said there appeared some misunderstanding and a communication gap. "Both sides are unable to convey their point across, but an amicable solution has to be found, which is possible only through a dialogue," he said. 

On the other hand, Chairman Sonalika Tractors AS Mittal said that rural sector industries had immensely benefitted during the covid 19 pandemic. "We manufacture tractors and have witnessed immense demand from the rural sector to the extent that we are not in a position to fulfill the requirement." He said that the tractor manufacturing Industry has shown very positive signs and believed that other rural segments would have also registered similar growth. 

He said about the farmer's strike besides logistics, and there had not been much impact on their manufacturing units. "There is some inconvenience in the dispatch of goods, and we have to ship our goods to Ambala; of course, due to railways issues, the raw material prices have gone up. Otherwise, there is no much change in our day to day activities," said Mittal. The protest and rail roko agitation in Punjab have added one to lockdown and corona crises, resulting in deepening the trade in Punjab. 

Stating that Punjab had hit the multiple whammies with the farmers strike, Gunbir Singh, the past president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Punjab, said that the coronavirus's impact pandemic was unavoidable. Still, the lack of trade with neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan had redoubled its impact on the state, and the shortage of movement of goods trains had only added woes to the people of the state's miseries. 

 "Not only Punjab's Industry, trade but the services has also affected badly, and the hospitality industry is at a complete standstill. Amritsar used to have over one lakh tourist footfall every day but now a day's not even its trickle is there".  Expressing his views on the ongoing farmers' strike, Gunbir observed that farmers had allowed a goods train movement. However, due to a lack of coordination between the state and Central government, the goods train services were still suspended.  

He said he believed that there was a lack of confidence on both ends, and farmers should meet the correct level of people both at state and Center. Punjab has faced black days for more than two decades and peace restored by many efforts by its people and the respective governments. Traders in Punjab expressed that they don't want those black days to happen again in the state. 

Trade and Industry required a congenial atmosphere, we had a troubled time in Punjab, and Punjab has sailed through most of the time. It actually healed to a larger extent; this is a time we needed to encash the peace and tranquility in the state, said Gunbir.