GUJRAT: At least 16 factories of electric fans, pottery and other raw material have been sealed by the local administration for resuming operations without permission and in violation of official protocols for coronavirus.

The factories were mainly sealed in small industrial estate area where the owners were running operations for several days by locking the front gates of the units.

Gujrat Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Jameel, during an inspection visit to the industrial area on Tuesday along with a team as well as police, found that a number of units were functional.

Mr Jameel told Dawn that he found electricity meters of some units running and heard sounds of machines, but the main gates were locked. Similarly, he said, motorbikes and cars were found parked outside a locked unit, while in a few of them he found trucks being loaded with manufactured goods.

He said he sealed at least 16 factories, mostly making electric fans or their raw material and pottery, since none of these units had been permitted to resume operations during the lockdown. He said these units had not even taken any precautionary measures for their workers.

The Gujranwala commissioner had earlier granted conditional permission to around 600 units of export-based industry in Sialkot, Wazirabad, Gujranwala and Gujrat to reopen with limited workers.

However, these manufacturers later called upon the authorities to allow some allied and vendor industry supplying basic raw material also, otherwise their orders would not be completed.

The authorities have yet to respond to the request.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2020