With no relief from nearly 14 hours of power cut a day, the protests are growing louder and more and more units are set to join the September 27 protest that was announced by the micro industries a couple of days ago. Demonstrations, picketing and fasts are being planned for September 27.
Indefinite fast
The micro industries, numbering more than 25,000 and employing over three lakh people, will stop production for a day on Thursday.
Further, members of the Coimbatore Tirupur District Micro and Cottage Entreprenuers’ Association will go on indefinite fast and those of Tamil Nadu Micro and Cottage Enterprises Association will stage a demonstration in front of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) office here.
Over 100 small and micro pumpset manufacturers will also down shutters on Thursday and join the protest. The small and tiny foundries will stop production for a day.
Meanwhile, load shedding was relaxed for a short duration in some areas in Coimbatore city on Monday morning because of better wind energy generation. It was 2,496 MW on Sunday evening and 1,455 MW on Monday morning.
An official of the TANGEDCO said the rural areas had an additional one hour load shedding compared to the city.
Relaxation in load shedding depended on wind energy availability.
Tirupur Staff Reporter writes:
In Tirupur, major trade unions held a joint meeting on Monday to discuss the power situation and resolved to stage a demonstration on October 1. They said the power cut threatened the existence of the Tirupur knitwear cluster.
CITU district secretary M. Chandran told The Hindu that outages for 14 hours a day affected the production cycle in the apparel units.
Generators
“The predominant tiny and small scale units that constitute an important link in the production chain, are on the verge of closure since most of the owners of such units cannot afford to go in for diesel-run generators to generate power during the load shedding hours,” he said.
The trade unionists pointed out that if the load shedding continued, it would render thousands of workers jobless.
Over 100 small and micro pumpset manufacturers to down shutters on Thursday
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