Tata Motors representatives and state transport minister Champai Soren met on Monday at the Circuit House here over resuming operations of the automobile major in Jamshedpur that has stopped production in the ongoing lockdown.
After the half-an-hour meeting, the transport minister assured the officials of the automobile major that he would talk to chief minister Hemant Soren shortly on the matter.
“I have told the representatives of Tata Motors that I will talk to the chief minister and let him know about the company’s willingness to restart its operations at its plant here. Hopefully, the matter will be sorted out soon,” the transport minister told The Telegraph.
Tata Motors stopped production here since March 25 when the Centre announced the nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. With the Tata Motors plant in Jamshedpur stopping its operations, over 1,000 ancillary units, mostly in the Adityapur satellite town that supplies spare parts to the company for assembling trucks, also stopped production.
Inder Kumar Agrawal, president, Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA), said that Tata Motors had already resumed its operations at its Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) units with the fullest commitment to ensure strict social distancing.
“When production can start at the Pantnagar and Lucknow units with permission from the state governments concerned even during the lockdown, then why is the Jharkhand government not giving permission for the same here at Jamshedpur,” asked Agrawal.
The ASIA president told The Telegraph that thousands of workers engaged in the ancillaries were sitting idle. “If the state government allows the automobile company to restart operations, then ancillary units will also start functioning and thousands will get their livelihoods back,” he said.