Quarantine for migrants adds to labour shortage in BBN zone

A deserted section of a manufacturing unit at Baddi.

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, July 1

The 14-day mandatory quarantine condition for labourers is a handicap for the industry to enhance productivity in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) hub.

While the government has permitted the migrants, engaged on a permanent basis, to join work immediately after their arrival, those engaged through contractors are quarantined for 14 days after their arrival.

Productivity of industrial units hit

The government’s policy pertaining to migrants’ entry is affecting the productivity of industrial units. The quarantine period should be reduced to five days and there should be a similar standard-operating procedures for all migrants — Sanjay Khurana, President, BBN Industries Association

Both investors and labour contractors are reluctant to pay wages to these migrants during the quarantine period as they have spent Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 to bring them back from their native states.

As many as 1,500 migrants have been registered with the local administration after their arrival in the BBN. About 30 to 40 migrants, however, continue to come surreptitiously through escape routes daily, said police sources.

The migrants are sent to institutional quarantine. Since a large number of them have tested Covid positive, the government cannot allow them to work without being quarantined.

“I’m facing about 30 per cent labour shortage and unable to attain 100 per cent productivity despite availability of work orders,” said Surinder Kumar, a human resource executive of a home appliances manufacturing unit at Baddi.

He said, “The three-month period up to September is the peak time to earn and if this is lost, the whole year will be lost.”

The manufacturing operations of an automobile unit is adversely hit at Nalagarh as its ancillary units are unable to manufacture machine parts due to the labour shortage. Things have come to such a pass that the management of the unit has deputed 20 employees to its ancillary units to meet the shortage, said sources.