The ambitious Hill Industrial Policy that the State Government launched in 2008 keeping in view the potential of developing micro and small scale industries in its hilly terrain and promoting self-employment in these regions, seems to have taken a backseat.
Whereas, as many as 24 industrial plots are still lying vacant at the mini-industrial hub at Dwarahat in Almora for long, poor infrastructural facilities like bad State of electricity supply still remains a matter of concern for the entrepreneurs in Nainital’s Kotabag and other areas. Apart from routine load-shedding, delay on part of the district electricity department in laying of the 700 meter-long electricity supply line in Kotabag , has only added to the woes of the entrepreneurs in that area.
Though following the complaints of the entrepreneurs, the Nainital district administration claims to have asked the officials concerned of the power department to ensure smooth supply of power to industries in Kotabag, red-tapism continues to haunt the entrepreneurs who are finding it hard to run their business. For example, getting clearance from the pollution control board is one of the biggest concerns for the industrialists here. As a Nainital- based industrialist Mahendra Bisht informed, he was interested in setting up a small scale industry to prepare soya milk and soya paneer in the district. But the pollution control board has raised objections, saying the industry of preparing soya milk and soya paneer would create pollution, further said Bisht.
The logic befuddles us. What we would have to do is to extract milk and prepare paneer from ‘soyabeen’. We wonder how it would cause pollution, asked BishtIJSuch objections citing environmental concerns are discouraging the industrialists, particularly those interested in the small scale industries in the hill regions of the State, he alleged.
However, Deepak Rawat, District Magistrate, Naintal, following Bisht’s complaint on the matter has directed the officials concerned of the pollution control board not to create unnecessary hurdles for the entrepreneurs. Rather they should help the entrepreneurs set up their business units, he added.Though efforts are on to develop some industrial centres at Kotabag blcok’s Nayagaon and Zulfkar/Kaladhungi areas and at Kotabag’s Bajuniya Haldu, only 285 small scale industries are registered in the district so far, the officials concerned of the Nainital district administration said.
Mention worthy, to attract entrepreneurs for setting up their business in hills, the State Government offered loan subsidy and special concessions on capital investment and electricity under the said hill industrial policy. More so, to promote small and micro scale industries and promote self-employment, the State Government also covered plain areas of Nainital district, including Haldwani and Ramnagar, under this hill industrial policy.
Though a number of hotels and resorts have come up in Ramnagar in the recent years, the hill areas of the Nainital district and other parts of this division have not witnessed that kind of growth in terms of industrial units so far.