Longer lockdown looms, business seeks exemptions Transport, buying pleas

Mamata at Nabanna on Thursday. (Sourced by The Telegraph)

Sambit Saha , TT, 10.04.20, Calcutta: Industrialists in Bengal on Thursday pleaded with chief minister Mamata Banerjee to allow partial resumption of trade and commerce if the lockdown period is extended.

At an interaction in Nabanna, the chief minister assured the industrialists that the state government would look into their request and asked them to send specific proposals for exemptions and relaxations to chief secretary Rajiva Sinha so that they could be examined in further detail.

However, the Bengal government ruled out requests for financial packages to the most affected sectors, such as travel and tourism, and also turned down a plea for a waiver on electricity dues of industry.

In the first interaction with several Calcutta-based business leaders, representatives of chambers of commerce and trade bodies during the lockdown, the chief minister hinted that the lockdown could be extended as the number of new cases was still rising in India.

“We will attend the meeting on April 11 with the Prime Minister and a decision will be taken then,” she said, adding that the next few weeks would be crucial in the fight to contain the spread of the virus. Mamata requested industry to bear the brunt of the lockdown for some more time.

“I know what all of you are going through. I can feel the pain. But it seems we have to bear it for a few more days (after April 14, when the 21-day lockdown initially announced ends),” the chief minister said.

Acknowledging that business had been badly hit, which is crippling many establishments’ ability to stay afloat, Mamata made it clear the government would consider every proposal that could ease their pain a little.

The government agreed to look into the request of rice mill owners to procure spare parts and consider allowing engineering goods lying in Howrah godowns to be taken to ports for export.

The engineering industry asked if it could operate with a few people, after taking all precautions, so that they do not lose out on export orders.

Representatives of medicine retailers asked if the state government could sanitise Mehta Building in central Calcutta, the wholesale pharma market in Bengal. Mamata said the task had already been taken up with the help of police.

An official from the hypermarket Spencer’s sought police permission to keep the retail chain’s 40-odd stores in the state open longer than the existing 11am-5pm window. The government agreed to look into it.

“What industry needs now is liquidity and fiscal sops. But this only the Centre can do. The role of a state government is limited. Despite that, the state administration listened to us carefully and assured us to do whatever it can,” an industry leader who participated in the meeting said.

Rudra Chatterjee, the president of FICCI’s Bengal chapter and director of Luxmi Group, said his unit in Uttarakhand could produce PPE (personal protective equipment) suits in abundant quantities. “We are supplying to other states and can do so to Bengal as well,” he said.

Umesh Chowdhury of Titagarh Wagons said it would offer two quarantine centres to the state. Mayank Jalan, the president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and chairman of Keventer, offered to educate farmers about hygiene practices and social-distancing norms.