Take action against copper wire, castings,steel rod hoarders

Coimbatore, Feb 11 (PTI): Kovai Power Driven Pumps andSpares manufcturers association (KOPMA) today urged the Centreto bring to book hoarders of copper wire, castings and steelrod, used in pump manufacturing, who were creating artificialscarcity and hiking prices.

Association president, K Maniraj told reporters that theprices of castings have doubled in six months, while that ofcopper had gone up from Rs 400 to Rs 625 per kg. Steel rodprices had gone up from Rs 60 to Rs70 in just 10 days.

The traders, who were buying and stocking these materialsfrom North India, were hoarding it to create an artificialscarcity to increase the prices, he alleged and requested thegovernment to take stringent action against them, to save thesmall time pump and spare manuacturers in and around the city.

As an alternative, the governments can open a raw materialbank, through which the required materials can be procured andsupplied to the industries, stopping hoarders from hikingprices as they liked, he said.

The Centre could also take steps to rein in the prices, asin the case of onion and also import the raw material,he said.

If the governments failed to take action against hoardersand bring down the prices, the association, with support oflike-minded industrial associations and workers, would resortto a series of agitation, Maniraj said.