Markapuram slate industry troubled by power cuts

 :                                 Markapuram slate industry troubled by power cuts

DC CORRESPONDENT

ONGOLE, APRIL 22

The slate industry at Markapuram was troubling with ongoing power cuts. The slump in the slate industry had led to nearly 20000 workers suffering. The Markapuram was famous for slates and it fulfills 80 percent slate and slate pencils demands of our country. There are 150 slate units but half of them are on the edge of closure with power cuts and the recent electricity tariff hike.

As many as 20000 people from Vemulakota, Kottalapalli, Vemulapeta, Jammanapalli, Kolabhimunipadu, Kottapalli, Tippayapalem, Nikarampalli, Ammavaripalli, Sivarampuram, Kondepalli, Rayavaram, Yachavaram, Moddulapalli, Ganugapenta, Darimadugu, Bodapadu, and Idupudu were working in the slate industries but many are now going to agriculture works like plucking chilli and national rural employment guarantee scheme works. Some migrated to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guntur, Nellore and other areas and are working in the construction field.  

Some workers of Yachavaram said that industries will get orders from December to May from educational institutions but entry of high tech methods like power point presentation, computers and erasable plastic notes has badly affected those orders due to adoption of computer technology by educational institutions. A leader of design slate units union, K. Nageswara Rao that their business mainly depends on export orders due to use of design slates by foreign countries hence government should supply electricity without power cuts, he demanded rollback of increased power tariffs for slate industries.

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