MUMBAI: Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai on Monday said some six lakh people employed in various sectors had resumed work amid easing of restrictions in the lockdown in place for the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Interacting with industry representatives, Desai said as many as 25,000 companies in Maharashtra had resumed operations.
"Around 6 lakh people working in these 25,000 firms have got back to work. In western Maharashtra alone, 9,147 industries have been given permission to restart work. Of these, a total of 5,774 have already resumed operations," he said.
He said no permission for resumption of industries had been given in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad as these areas have high number of COVID-19 cases and are in the red zone, adding "we cannot take any risk of restarting work here".
"Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is determined to make the entire state a green zone," he said, and added that sops in power tariffs and loan repayment would be given to ease the burden of industries.