The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Movement of tea, vegetables hit

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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Movement of tea, vegetables hit

Arrival of grey cloth to Erode has stopped; outgo of finished textile goods affected

Photo: M. Periasamy

Way out: Workers loading grocery items and other essential commodities into the Cannanore Passenger at the Coimbatore Junction on Tuesday following a nation-wide strike by truck operators. –

As the nation-wide lorry strike entered the third day, movement of tea and vegetables from Udhagamandalam has been severly hit besides the textile industry in Erode.

Over 20 lakh kg of tea were waiting to be moved out of the warehouses at Coonoor. Another 10 to 13 lakh kg were expected to arrive on Thursday.

If the strike continues manufacturers will be in a fix. Even shifting tea from factories to warehouses have become a problem.

If tea leaves were not moved from the estates to the factories, growers would be subjected to a great deal of hardship since manufacturers have stopped accepting coarse leaves.

Many of the vegetable farmers have started bringing their produce to the markets in the district by buses and jeeps. Some were also sending vegetables to the plains by buses.

In Erode absence of traffic congestion, enabling free movement of vehicles on Easwaran Kovil Street, T.V. Samy Kovil Street, Brinda Street and Chokkanathan Street, relaxed bullocks chewing grass near carts, piled up goods in front of shops of wholesale dealers and commission agents said it all. Lorry strike has hit the weekly textile market here.

Not a lorry was spotted on the aforementioned streets, which on the market day of Tuesday resemble a market in every sense of the term – no honking of vehicles, no ringing of telephones to finalise last minute deals and no shouting by load men. The relative calm that prevailed was unusual.

No work

“Since morning, we have been sitting idle with no work to do,” says A. Arumugam, president of Erode Mavatta Sumaipaniyalargal Sangam, an association of those who load and unload goods.

“On every other market day,” Mr. Arumugam says, “the 80 members of the association are busy loading and unloading goods.”

The result: they lose their income. “Every Tuesday we earn about Rs. 200, which this week is as good as lost.”

For the textile manufacturers the lorry strike has come as a double whammy they are able to neither get goods for processing and printing nor despatch finished goods to customers.

“Grey fabric that we use for printing has not arrived from Palladam, Somanur and Tiruchengode, and the finished items like bed spreads, lungies, etc. have not been despatched because of the lorry strike,” says R.S. Nataraja Mudaliar of Erode Handloom Cloth Merchants’ Association. Goods that are to be sent to Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and southern parts of Tamil Nadu are lying idle at various transport offices.

The vice-president of Erode Goods Transport Association, V. Irulakesavan, says 150 lorries that ferry goods from the Tuesday weekly market have not moved goods.

In Erode, about 1,500 lorries are off the roads.

Mr. Mudaliar says traders and commission agents have goods worth Rs. 20 crore that ought to be despatched. He adds that goods despatched a few days ago are stranded at various places.

This has led to a severe cash crunch among the traders. “Since the goods despatched have not reached the traders, they have not sent cheques. And, for the goods to be despatched we are yet to pay our buyers,” says a trader.

Representatives of the textile industry say they want the Government to invite the lorry traders to talks at the earliest so that the textile industry gets a reprieve.

The strike has also affected the livelihood of casual labourers in Udhagamandalam. They were mainly engaged for farm work and washing of vegetables like carrots.

D. Radhakrishnan in Udhagamandalam and Karthik Madhavan in Erode

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