The Aligarh lock industry which employs nearly 1.5 lakh skilled and unskilled workers has demanded prompt steps from the Yogi Adityanath government for its "revival" in the face of persistent hardships intensified by lockdowns.
Severely setback by demonetisation and the subsequent digitisation, the sector was dealt a massive blow by the GST as it still is largely unorganised and lacks the resources to introduce online accounting, stakeholders of the industry complained.
This, along with rising electricity charges, raw material costs and competition from low-cost Chinese products in the market, put severe stress on the industry that comprises around 6,500 cottage-scale units functioning in the traditional routine of production for six days and selling on the seventh.