Days after Jharkhand Small Industries Association (JSIA) raised concerns about lack of cooperation from the State Government to existing small and medium scale industries in the State, Chief Minister Hemant Soren has directed the Industries Department to review all issues and take corrective actions.
Chief Minister Soren in a morning tweet expressing his Government’s commitment to promote industries tweeted, “Our Government is committed to solve issues around MSMEs & small units as Jharkhand’s growth business friendly investment destination needs participation of both domestic & external investors.’
The Industries Department sprang into action after the Chief Minister’s tweet. Industries director, Jitendra Kumar Singh said, “We have called a meeting of different small and MSMEs associations from Ranchi on Wednesday. The meeting will discuss various problems of small and MSMEs units.” The meeting will be represented by representatives of JSIA, industries secretary Pooja Singhal and others.
Singh also said followed by a meeting of representatives of JSIA from Ranchi, similar meetings will be held by JSIA representatives from Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad.
The Jharkhand Government’s commitment to solve the issues of MSMEs and small industries assume’s importance, as a few days back Jharkhand Small Industries Association (JSIA) said that the State government has closed the doors on the existing industrial units and is refusing to bear their problems.
Listing out the problems, JSIA secretary Ajay Pacheriwala said that there are inordinate delays in the procurement of factory licences from the industries department and no objection certificates from the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board.
There is shortage of availability of land under the state’s industrial areas and there is lack of basic infrastructural facilities in these areas. There is an irregular power supply and adding woes, the state energy department has suddenly hiked the electricity duty.
Recently at a daylong business meet organised by the state unit of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the same concern was raised by industry experts. The experts claim that the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in Jharkhand face the same problems as other businesses do.
Though some panellists pointed out the opportunities the MSME sector could grab, those actually running micro and small enterprises in the state said the ground reality was entirely different.
Chairman and Managing Director of Mecon Limited Atul Bhatt said that the ongoing expansion of the Indian steel industry offered enough opportunities but the MSME sector didn’t realise its potential and showed no inclination to capture those.
He further said indigenously built components could reduce import dependence on China and Eastern Europe.
Jharkhand Government’s commitment to develop and look into issues of MSMEs and small industries follows Chief Minister Soren remark that state is going to witness investments at least to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore as well as 2 lakh direct and indirect jobs. He said this at the launch of Jharkhand Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (JIIPP) 2021 during Investors' Meet organised in New Delhi last month.