The power crisis in Andhra Pradesh is deepening day by day with small and medium industries threatening a lock-out. This extreme decision to go for shut-down has stemmed up from the decision of the power companies to compel thses industries to take a 17-day power holiday in a month. This the power companies have decided in view of the impending power crisis.

The power companies have issued notices to about 1.61 lakh small and micro industrial units effective Wednesday (February 29), that they should observe 2-day power holiday in a week along with the regular weekly off. Apart from this, they have been told that no power would be supplied between 6 pm and 10 pm everyday in the name of peak load adjustment. Along with the 12 days forced by the three-day a week power closure, the four-hour shutdown between 6 pm and 10 pm would translate into 120 hours of closure or another 5 days of holiday in a month. As a result, the industrial units can work for only 13 days in a month.

On Monday, representatives of 17 small and medium industrial units in and around Hyderabad served lock-out notices to joint labour commissioner Ravi Bhushan Rao stating that the power crisis and the holidays imposed on them is virtually sounding the death knell for them even as other units across the state prepared to follow suit. Many other industrial units have decided to announce lay-offs so that they can save on salaries. "I will bring the issue to the notice of the state government as the power cuts issue does not fall under the purview of the labour department," Ravi Bhushan Rao has reportedly told the representatives.

Nearly 6,000 units located in and around Hyderabad have decided to go for 15-day lock-out in a month so that they need not pay full salary to the workers. Nearly 13 lakh workers are employed in these units and they are set to receive only half the monthly salary from March onwards. "With only half the month's salary, how does one expect the worker to survive in this metro city," asked a trade union leader in Miyapur industrial estate.

In all, 37 lakh workers are employed in the 1.61 lakh small and micro industrial units across the state. Thanks to the power crisis and the power holiday, the unemployment rate is set to drastically increase in the coming months due to the lock-outs and lay-offs. Industrial units in Chittoor, Kadapa, Anantapur, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Medak are also planning to go for lock-out in order to minimise their losses as the production in their units has come down to less than 50%. The unprecedented industrial power cuts saw a reversal of the industrial growth in the state which had touched an all-time high in the 2007-08 financial year when there were no power cuts or power holidays in the industrial sector.