LUDHIANA: Since 1st January 2021 the protestors have blocked the main gate of ICD Kilaraipur by placing tractor trolley thereby obstructing movement of goods, ingress and egress of people and completely halting entire operations of ICD Kilaraipur.
Closing down of the business activities at ICD Kilaraipur will have impact on the loss of job to direct and indirect workforce 400 persons/families.
There will also be a loss to exchequer in the form of Railway Haulage, GST, Customs Duties and other taxes in the tune of INR 700 Crores and overall economic impact around INR 7000 Crores.
Adani Group had set up a Multi Model Logistics Park at Kilaraipur, Ludhiana, Punjab in the year 2017 (ICD Kilaraipur) spread over 80 acres to facilitate the industries in and our Ludhiana by providing them services of import and export of cargo through rail and road.
Since 1st January 2021 the protestors have blocked the main gate of ICD Kilaraipur by placing tractor trolley thereby obstructing movement of goods, ingress and egress of people and completely halting entire operations of ICD Kilaraipur.
Despite repeated complaints to all Police Authorities, no affirmative action has been taken to vacate the blockade. The Adani Group preferred to writ before Punjab and Haryana High Court in the month of March’21 in the hope that the Hon’ble Court will protect its fundamental right by passing necessary directions to State Authorities to remove the blockade.
The State Authorities till date has only filed status reports before the Hon’ble Court and completely failed to remove the blockade. On the last hearing which was held on July 20, 2021, the Hon’ble Court had once again directed the State Counsel to apprise the Hon’ble Court on the next date i.e. July 30, 2021 to resolve the issue. There has never been an order passed by this Hon’ble court to remove the blockade and allow the petitioner to carry on its business.
The Group has also submitted that on one hand the State has failed to take any step to remove the blockade and on the other hand, the Hon’ble Court has not been able to decide the issue and kept on asking State to file reports or resolve the issues and failed to protect the fundamental rights of the petitioner.
The Group is suffering huge losses due to forceful closure of its ICD facility at Kilaraipur. Due to the persistent blockade, the Group has not received any relief since last 7 months and continues to bear losses to business and goodwill each passing day.
The Group has not got any relief from either the Executive or the Legal apparatus of the State. The Group hopes that The Hon’ble would appreciate that it cannot wait any further for justice to be delivered. Owing to the blockade the business has come to a complete standstill. Despite this, the Group has continuously paid full wages to its staff and payments to vendors in the hope that the Hon’ble Court and State of Punjab will take action for removal of the blockade.
The Group has waited for almost 7 months in the hope that blockade will be removed shortly. As the State administration were not able to remove the blockade and allowing the Adani to carry on its business, the Group has decided to close the business operation at ICD Kilaraipur as it cannot any further sustain the losses and continue to pay wages.
As a part of closing down of ICD Kialraipur, the Group has removed its signage from the main gate of ICD Kailaraipur and issued termination notice to its employees, workers and all other concerned.
Closing down of the business activities at ICD Kilaraipur will have impact on the loss of job to direct and indirect workforce 400 persons/families. There will also be a loss to exchequer in the form of Railway Haulage, GST, Customs Duties and other taxes in the tune of INR 700 Crores and overall economic impact around INR 7000 Crores
The Hon’ble Court has also observed that the rights of the people to carry on business is not protected and its duty to of the State administration to ensure that people should be able to carry on its business without any hindrances