New Delhi: There is indeed a news to cheer in the defence production side as some of the leading Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) BEL, HAL and BEML, which had come to a standstill for close to a month in the wake of the government enforcing a lockdown to combat the spread of the Covid-19, resumed work on April 28.
The three Bengaluru-headquartered defence Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) had ordered the closing down of their manufacturing units from March 24 onwards. More than 36,000 employees work with the three PSUs.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs has clarified that since HAL is stated to be providing essential services to the Indian Air Force for maintaining operational preparedness, hence, HAL can be treated as on par with defence,” a HAL order stated.
Divisions of the Bangalore Complex, Design Complex and Helicopter Complex will work in two shifts between 7 am to 3 pm and 4 pm to 12 midnight.
It said the divisions would obtain an undertaking from all the employees, tenure based personnel, casual and contract labourers who report to work from April 28 onwards.
In the undertaking the employees will have to declare whether they were in the headquarters (Bengaluru) during the lockdown period and if they were not, they would have to indicate the reasons and the place they were in.
That apart there are strict standard operating procedures which the employees would have to adhere to during their work hours.
Women employees would have to work only during one shift.
From March 24 to April 27, only those working in essential services were reporting for duty.
HAL is the only aircraft manufacturer in the country. It produces the LCA, Su-30 Mki, Hawk, Dornier aircraft, Chetak, Cheetah, ALH Dhruv helicopters besides producing engines, avionics, aerospace systems and materials.
Employees of BEL also reported to work from April 28 onwards. A spokesperson said that about 30 per cent of employees would report to work. They were provided passes to ensure that they could commute to work in private vehicles. Due to the initial teething troubles, a few may be absent from work but would report in the coming days, he added.
BEL makes products in the areas of radars, missile systems, military communications, naval systems, electronic warfare and avionics, among others.
BEML, which is involved in the manufacturing of trucks used by the military and also integral rail coaches and metro cars, has about 7,000 employees all over India with about 2,000 working in Bengaluru alone. About 30 per cent of their staff too reported to work.
