Reviving vanishing industries becomes poll pledge for parties
Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, May 12
With candidates of all prominent political parties promising to restore holy city’s bygone industrial status, revival of the vanishing industries has almost become a political issue in this Lok Sabha election.
BJP nominee and former diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu, SAD candidate and former Cabinet minister Anil Joshi, AAP nominee and NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and incumbent Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla are assuring the voters of Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency that the problem of high unemployment and youth going abroad in search of jobs could be resolved by setting up new industries and reviving the old ones.
Industrialists associated with vanishing industries like electric fans, carpets and textile processing say they have been demanding a special package and trained youth to revive their units. Owners of industries, including warp knitting, a form of textile, and nut-bolt manufacturers, are of the view that their industries are on the decline due to competition posed by external forces and without government intervention, they would soon be bracketed in the category of city’s vanishing industries.
A screw and nut-bolt manufacturer Samir Goel said, “The city is fast losing its edge of being a domestic market leader in manufacturing screw and nut-bolts to China. The local industry does not require financial assistance, but R&D support to improve the quality of finished product.” He said party leaders were promising to assist the local industry, but they must spell out a concrete plan as each industry required different hand-holding.
Satnam Singh Kanda, who once used to operate a fan manufacturing unit, said from over 2,500 units years ago, their number had come down to a few hundred. He said a majority of manufacturers and skilled labourers switched to other professions while successive governments never bothered to know the factors leading to their decline. Now, a keen contest between the candidates forced them to show their desire to set up local industries which might pave the way for the revival of old units, he felt.
The flourishing processing and dyeing industry for textiles also recorded a fall from over 100 units to the nearly 30 now surviving in this border city. Industrialists associated with the textile industry say the textile sector here fell on bad days due to lack of technical and monetary support by the government, the failure of owners to modernise and labour stirs led by Left parties. The golden period of the textile processing industry here was between 1970 and 1990. The same period was characterised as the peak time for Left politics in the city.
Once famous for hand-made Persian-style carpets, also called Bukhara style (a place in Iran where the art is quite popular), the art is on the verge of extinction.
Local warp knitting units use polyester yarn as raw material, prominently used in party wear dresses. Besides, it is used in manufacturing a range of items, including shoes, school bags, automobiles, curtains, bed sheets, briefcases, sportswear, helmets, travelling accessories, men and women’s wear, upholstery of cars, home textiles, and many other items. Over 400 warp knitting units, with an annual turnover of around Rs 2,000 crore, are facing a double challenge from Bangladesh and Gujarat where a large number of such units have put the local industry in existential crisis.
