The Industries and commerce Association (ICA) has expressed deep concern over the apathetic attitude of both state and union governments towards the hardcoke industry.
Addressing the 89th annual general meeting here on Friday association president BN Singh said, "Post Covid-19 pandemic stimulus packages announced by the union Finance Minister though provide some relief to many sectors but the hardcoke industry was left high and dry despite the fact that this industry is a major employer of this region and a strategically important industry. The industry faces a severe crisis due to the policies of the Ministry of Coal, Government of India, Coal India Limited and its subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal
Limited (BCCL)."
"The industry is on death throes but the ministry of coal appears not to be interested in helping this industry to survive. All our requests to the Prime Minister, Coal Minister, Coal India Limited and Bharat Coking Coal Limited have yielded no results. Though protecting this industry is in the interest of all stakeholders as it can generate huge revenue for the government," he claimed.
Singh said that a valuable national resource of coking coal is wasted by supplying it to thermal power plants that do not need coking coal for power generation. This industry once was the second largest employer of the Jharkhand State and provided livelihood to the poor, tribal and
other deprived sections of the society.
But the scenario has changed with one policy change after the other starting from the then Congress Government to the present BJP government that converted linkage coal policy to fuel supply agreement (FSA) and later this too was withdrawn.
He also expressed concern that the state government has failed in increasing the level of ease of doing business to make the state truly industry friendly. Electricity, road and other infrastructure requirements are still not of the level required for rapid industrial growth.
Dhanbad remains deprived of air services and this is also a shortcoming for industries, he added. He requested both the union and state government to announce a package to bailout this industry from the crisis.
Several senior members of the association were present during the AGM.