Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam & Ashutosh Bhardwaj
Are the political parties facing the heat of economic slowdown this election? Did the parties tell their workers to leave? No, right? Then why is the condition of industries so dire? To understand this, The Quint reached Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
Jamshedpur is known as the hub of industries. Here The Quint met a labourer, Akash Mukhi. He has worked as a helper in an automobile company. But the falling economy has taken his job away. Akash told, “There was no work left in the company I was working for. They started layoffs. People were removed, so I was also removed.”
‘80,000 People Lost Jobs’
Akash is not the only one who has lost his job. Bikash Mukherjee, Chairman of Auto Profile Limited, said, “The condition of the entire industrial area is that 80 thousand people have laid off.”
Further, talking about the company’s condition, he said:
“Our turnover has come to a halt at 15%. There is a loss worth crores. Our turnover was around 600 crores before last year. Now, there’s a doubt about whether we’ll be able to have a turnover of even Rs 100 crores this time.”Bikash Mujherjee
Tata Motors in The Grip of Recession
Tata company has auto and steel plants in Jamshedpur. Bikash Mukherjee explained, “Tata Motors has a capacity to produce 12 to 14 thousand vehicles. 10-12 thousand vehicles were produced in normal days. Lucknow had a capacity for 6-7 thousand vehicles. Right now, 2,000 cars are being made in Jamshedpur and 1,600-1,700 in Lucknow.”
There are about a thousand companies, including big and small, in Jamshedpur. Right now, the government will have to find a way out of the economic slowdown as a lot of unemployed people are looking forward to the steps that the government takes.
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