Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to focus on concrete action rather than resorting to gimmicks like banging plates and lighting lamps, as unemployment had increased post the 21-day lockdown announcement and crores of workers in various sectors were facing a livelihood crisis.
In a statement, Mr. Alagiri said exports, especially of textiles, from the country had taken a big hit due to the lockdown “In Karur, more than ₹1,000 crore worth of garments ready for export have been stuck. The export orders have been cancelled. How will these products be sold now? Where will they sell it? There are reports that textile manufacturers are facing a loss of ₹5 crore to ₹10 crore per day,” Mr. Alagiri said.
He said Tiruppur, which is another export hub for textiles, was also badly hit by the lockdown. “Multiply this impact to such hubs across the country and you will see the devastating impact,” he said.
The State Congress leader also said that more than 30 lakh truck drivers, who are the backbone of the Indian economy, moving goods from one State to another, have been rendered jobless due to the restriction of movement of goods between States. “You need to provide at least ₹25,000 crore to make up for the losses in their wages,” he said.
Pointing to one of the largest employers in the country, Mr. Alagiri said there are nearly 4.25 crore SMEs and MSMEs in the country. The segment constitutes about 29% of India’s production and over ₹61 lakh crore in revenues.
“Even if you take a conservative estimate of salary provisioning at 10%, this is ₹6.1 lakh crore. You need a minimum of ₹1.50 lakh crore for three months to provide their salaries, so that each employee will get at least ₹2,200 per month for March, April and May,” he said and asked the Centre to immediately unveil steps to take care of the workers who are facing massive hardships.
