Telangana: Carpenters in a quandary

Hyderabad: The coronavirus epidemic has not spared anyone. Even the carpenters have been badly hit. After two months of the crises, the carpenters face three issues: lack of patronage, no respite in rent and shortage of quality wood.

In short, they have been hit from all fronts. The construction industry came to a grinding halt and as a result there is a huge dip in demand.

"As our business is largely interrelated with the real estate, it has also affected badly due to two months long lockdown. We depend on odd orders," said Syed Akbar, a carpenter who used to run shop at Mustafa Nagar.

Prior to the lockdown, four orders fetched Rs 30,000 after incurring all necessary expenses such as labour charges, electricity bill, rent and maintenance.

"Government came to rescue of tenants of residents houses by issuing order directing the landlords to avoid collecting rents. However, landlords of commercial establishments continue to demand rent.

Restrictions hit our business hard and it will take more than a year to for business to come back on track," said Mohammed Imran, another professional carpenter who used to work at Bandlaguda.

Government should bail out the carpenter community in the state by extending financial help through banks. "We are also playing a significant role in boosting the economy and propelling the real estate business in the state identically to the others trades," he claimed.

"Generally wood to Telangana comes from Maharashtra. Daily hundreds of lorries of logs and lumbers of different variety of wood such as Ghairy/Rubber and Doodya turned up to different markets in Telangana but now there is a shortage and prices shot up," informed Mohammed Aslam who used to sell logs and lumbers in the city outskirts.