The State government is expected to come out with operational guidelines soon so that the additional activities exempted from the COVID-19 lockdown measures announced by the Union government can be taken up from April 20.
“We need the operational guidelines to put into effect what the Centre announced on Wednesday. The permissions are subjected to conditions. For instance, the industries need to take all the prescribed safety measures if they are to be permitted to operate,” a senior official in the State government said.
The official added that discussions will be held with related departments and the operational guidelines will be on the same lines of the guidelines issued by the Union Government. It is likely to be announced in two or three days.
With the Centre announcing additional activities that can be taken up from April 20 in areas that are not containment zones, industries in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts waited for clarifications to resume operations.
“We will wait for Tamil Nadu guidelines,” said K. Selvaraju, secretary general of Southern India Mills’ Association.
“I kept getting calls from the Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises from Wednesday morning asking if they can restart operations. But we need clarifications to resume operations,” said R. Ramamurthy, president of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association.
In Tirupppur, Raja Shanmugam, president of Tiruppur Exporters’ Association, said the announcements seem to give reprieve to the knitwear exporters. It permits units in special economic zones, industrial estates, industrial townships, export oriented units to operate. The knitwear units will be able to start making samples, he said.
