Technical service just a call away
The service of technicians such as electrician, generator, computer or air conditioner mechanic or welder is now just a call away. The District Industries Centre (DIC) here has formed a technical labour contract industrial cooperative society with 55 members.Most of the members are ITI diploma holders and offer basic domestic service ranging from electrical, furniture repair and carpentry to welding and phone repair.“The society is based on the new initiative of the State Government,” says S. Ashokan, General Manager of the centre. The DIC forms industrial cooperative societies for different sectors such as textiles, automobiles, metals and jewellery. Coimbatore District has 28 of them.During the first quarter this year, 14 of these societies registered profit. With regard to the technical society, Mr. Ashokan says technical people are located in different parts of the city and it can be difficult locating one of them at a short notice even for a minor repair work at home. The society is an effort to have an organised set-up. The members take up project works, both Government and private, and individual smaller repair works too.They have been provided with an identity card and the police are in the process of issuing a certificate to each of them, after verification, that they do not have any criminal record. Each of these technical societies has received Rs. 1 lakh from the Government (Rs. 60,000 as share capital and Rs. 40,000 as subsidy) and the members have their own work kits.
One technical society in Coimbatore and one in Pollachi were formed last year. Another will be registered in Tirupur soon. The DIC plans to start one for Mettupalayam. S.A. Iqbal, president of the Coimbatore society (0422-2302123, 9363201802), adds most of the members had individual work orders. When they received a call from the society they attended to it at the earliest. By coming together as an industrial cooperative society, they gained better customer confidence. The society hopes to do Rs. 3 lakh business this year.
