Chandigarh, Mar 30 (IANS): The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), here on Monday, requested Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to help industry by waiving all fixed power charges till the resolution of the coronavirus crisis.

Bikram Singh Majithia, former Minister, urged the Chief Minister to further extend subsidies to the industrial units to enable them to pay two-month wages to workers in March. It could include halving their power charges for three months, he added.

Stressing these steps, he said the industry's financial cycle had been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and they were not in a position to take any extra burden, be it fixed power charges or employees wages.

Advocating help to the industrial sector to protect state's economy from nose-diving, the SAD leader said the government's recent decision to allow industrialists open their units would not solve the problem.

"Industrialists don't have access to raw materials. Most will not be able to operate their units efficiently," he said and added, it didn't make sense for manufacturers to produce more as the old stock was piled up," he said

As fresh manufactured goods couldn't be dispatched soon, it would increase their liabilities further, Majithia said.