Power loom owners seek permission to operate units

With power looms in the district halting production for over seven weeks affecting the livelihood of thousands of workers, power loom unit owners urged the district administration to permit them to ru

With power looms in the district halting production for over seven weeks affecting the livelihood of thousands of workers, power loom unit owners urged the district administration to permit them to run their units at the earliest. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, over 50,000 power looms were functioning only in one shift from the last week of April to the first week of May. Workers were given jobs only for three days a week instead of six days. Due to new restrictions imposed by the State government to control the spread of virus, all the units halted production from May 7 making the workers jobless. Power loom unit owners were expecting relaxations from the government to resume operations which did not happen so far. L.P. Balasubramanian, secretary, Lakkapuram Power Loom Owners Association, said about 3,500 power looms were functioning at Lakkapuram village providing jobs to over 1,000 people directly and indirectly. “Despite closure, owners have managed to provide essential commodities to the workers in the past seven weeks. But it is not possible to support them further,” he said. He said most of the units functioned within 2,000 sq feet with less than four workers a shift. “Since the workplace is not crowded and is not visited by outsiders, the administration should allow them to resume operations so that workers could fulfil their basic needs,” he said.