With the Uttarakhand state Congress engaged in ridiculing the NDA Government’s achievements being ‘flaunted’ by the BJP, to turn the table on its rival, the saffron party volunteered an advice to the Congress-led State Government to take up the developmental grievances right to the NITI Aayog instead of indulging in rhetorical sabre-rattling.
Asked to spell out his party’s stance via-a-vis the state Congress’s demand to revert the special industrial status to the hill state, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi who was on a visit in Kumanon recently asked Congress to take up the emotive issue with NITI Aayog. The purpose of wining up the erstwhile Planning Commission and replacing with NITI Aayog is to enable the states to raise their issues individually. “Congress and its Government should use the institution fully to further the development cause of the State,” he added.
Meanwhile, members of the Kumaon- Garhwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KGCCI) in a statement issued on Monday, also raised the same industrial package issue with Trivedi during a meeting with him in Udham Singh Nagar. They said the new investment has been eluding the state since the special status was done away with. Many factors like poor availability of raw materials in Uttarakhand result in the rise in production cost.
To impart fillip to industrialization drive, reviving the special industrial status is a must, affirmed the entrepreneurs based in the state. Keeping in view Government of India’s ‘make in India’ policy, we also demand that the special industrial status to hill state must be extended for five years, the industrialists said during their meeting with Trivedi.
Notably, the industrial package was accorded to Uttarakhand in 2003 by the then BJP- led NDA Government for 10 years. However, with change of guards at the Centre in 2004, the industrial package was reduced to 2010. Since then, the demand has been there with BJP and Congress raising it while taking their turns to rule the state.
Hopes were revived after the Centre dished out a special industrial status to the state in 2014. But things keep on vegetating on the ground with nothing happening on the industrial front to justify the revived hope. Things are really worrisome for the state as the State Government has put its industrial expansion roadmap involving State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand limited (SIIDCUl) phase-II in abeyance.
It is believed that had the SIIDCUl phase -II been implemented it could have gone a long way in helping the state in having an economic turn-around. It would have also opened myriad avenues of employment for the youths- something that would effectively arrest the trend of migration , the observers said. It may be recalled that to meet the mounting aspirations of the people, particularly the youngsters, the erstwhile State Government had approved the industrial expansion plan under SIIDCUl phase-II to be developed at Sitarganj, Udham Singh Nagar in 2012-2013.