New Delhi, July 20
Maruti Suzuki is likely to declare a lockout at its car manufacturing plant in Manesar which witnessed a scale violence and death of a senior company executive. Over 100 persons were injured in the arson.

Experts say that declaring a lockout may be the only option left with the company given the volatile situation at the plant which has far exceeded any kind of labour unrest witnessed in the past.

After declaring a lockout which could continue for a few days, Maruti will watch the situation and if normalcy returns, try to kickstart the production again in the plant. For production to start again after the lockout will be a slow and gradual process. In the meantime, the company will have to bear production and financial losses as this plant supplies most of the company’s bestselling diesel models.

The violent incident also saw strong condemnation coming in from Japan. “We strongly hope that the State of Haryana would administer, according to law, prompt and just punishment to the perpetrators and effectively enforce law and order so that such incidence would not be repeated in the future," said a statement from the Japanese Embassy. Maruti is majority owned by Suzuki, a Japanese company.

Sources say that the speculation about Maruti moving its operations to Gujarat from Manesar may be far fetched. The reason for that is that the company has only recently finalized the land in Gujarat and building a plant, hiring people, getting ancillaries to set shop is atleast a 3 year process.

Infact, despite this recent incident and labour trouble several times in recent years, Maruti is committed to investing in Haryana and the third plant to come up at Manesar is on course to come up by the scheduled completion by next year and will produce 2.5 million vehicles.

The fallout of the violent incident at Manesar may result in the investment climate in the belt getting badly hit. Since the violence led to a death, corporates as well as job seekers are bound to get worried about their safety and security.