New Delhi: Haryana has suffered a loss of around Rs 20,000 crore on account of burning and destroying of public and private property due to one going Jat stir, said industry body Assocham.
Moreover, collateral damage has been done to businesses and industries in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.
"The ongoing violent agitation in Haryana has already dealt an estimated blow of Rs 18,000-Rs 20,000 crore by way of loss to public and private property and halting trade, industry, small business and transport," said Assocham, but did not mention as to how it arrived at the figure.
As Haryana shares borders with Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and is the transit route to a number of national highways and trunk railway lines, the collateral damage would be more.
"The collateral damage to the economic activities to other states in terms of loss to production, transport and movement of people would add a few thousands crore more to the overall loss to the national economy," it said.
Trade and industry loss is maximum in the worst affected areas of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Hissar, Bhiwani, Jind,Gohana, Sonipat, Kaithal, Karnal and Panipat, it added.
While the state government would assess the loss of damage to public property like burning of buses, private vehicles, railways stations, police stations, malls and hotels, thetrade, industry and other businesses have come to almost complete halt in most of the districts, it said.
"The state administration has to be on top of the situation to control the anti-social elements, causing immense damage to the reputation of the state," Assocham said.
Several industries had come up in the past few years, including that of Suzuki on the Delhi-Rohtak highway.
Maruti Suzuki has stopped production at its Gurgaon and Maneswar plants. Business hubs like Gurgaon which houses top multi-national companies with back-office operations in IT and IT services have been affected.
"A huge loss of confidence among investors to set up industries in this area would happen, making it imperative for the state administration not to lose further time in reining in the goonda and anti-social elements who are taking advantage of the Jat reservation agitation," he said.
