Pune: PMC Shuts Cummins India Kothrud Branch For Three Days As 20% Staff Found COVID19 Positive
Sumit Singh
Kothrud, 20th May 2021: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has ordered Cummins India Ltd to close their operation at the Kothrud branch for the next three days as 20% of staff tested positive for Coronavirus Disease (COVID19) in the last two months and three of them have died. The company premises have been declared as a ‘Corona hotspot’.
Kothrud-Bavdhan ward officer Sachin Tamkhade, who is also the incident commander for the area, has issued an order in this regard today.
According to the PMC order, a report was sought from the company earlier as the guidelines for COVID19 prevention were not being followed in the office premises. The report submitted by the company revealed that about 240 employees of the company which is almost 20% of total staff have tested positive for COVID19 and three people have died due to COVID19 during this period. There is only one place for dining and all workers gather there which may lead to the spread of the virus. As a result, there is a risk of covid infection in that place.
“Presently there are 50 active cases in Cummins India Ltd, Kothrud branch. The company is closed till May 23 and all the staff are to be tested for COVID19 before May 22 and asked to submit the report to PMC. Every 10 days, the staff should be re-tested until further instructions by PMC. Employees eligible for vaccination should get vaccinated on a priority. Faceshield should be made available to all workers. And the employees are instructed not to eat together in the canteen. The premises and equipment of the company should be disinfected from time to time”, the order states.
Cummins India designs, manufacture, distributes, and services engines and related technologies in India.
Cummins India Ltd statement on the closure notice by PMC: “Yes, we have received the notice from PMC today for our factory in Kothrud. However, we would like to state that we have been closely monitoring the situation and would confirm that we have taken all precautionary and preventative steps for our employees/ workers and adhered to all COVID 19 regulations stated by the government.
We have conducted sanitization and test for our employees and workers and have shared the data with the municipality and government officials as per the protocol.
We strictly follow the below rules across all our plants:
- The Plant has been closed for three days as advised by PMC Assistant Municipal Commissioner and we have closed the plant to cooperate with the PMC.
- The surge in cases in the second wave has impacted the whole country in last two months and compared with positivity rate of Kothrud and Pune we had very less cases at Cummins
- Right now, since last week we have found only 4 positive cases and we have only 11 active COVID cases as on date in the employee strength of 2000 plus employees.
- But all these cases have been detected outside the workplace and due to everyday screening at the entry and exit, social distancing at the shop floors, common areas etc. there is very little possibility of infection at the workplace
- We had also conducted vaccination drive for our 45years and above employees and contractors
- We have also arranged RAT testing at our facility for our employees at the interval of 15 days, our positivity rate has been less than 1%.
- Our Employee union has expressed disappointment over the wrong coverage done by the media.
- We are sharing the case details with government officials on daily basis as per the protocol
- We are running the plant to balance between the life and livelihood of our employees and other stakeholders.
- We have daily self-screening app for all our employees where the questions related COVID symptoms are asked before entering premises.
- Daily thermal screening of all employees, CWKs and visitors before entering in the premises and while going out of the premises is done.
- Mask distribution done on daily basis at the entry for all employees, contract labours and visitors.
- Daily Toolbox talk by Area Manager to follow the safety and COVID guidelines.
- Shift wise sanitization of the workstations and we have also set frequency of sanitizations wherein we are doing the deep sanitization on a regular basis.
- Every operator is sanitizing his/her workplace so that the common touch points are cleaned. We have set the process for that as well.
- Sanitizers with foot operator kept at all locations. Also, all taps are operated by the foot. Even our water coolers/taps are foot operated.
- Company has spent crores of Rupees to make our facility safer during the COVID period.”
