On the occasion of abrogation of Article 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution on August-05 last year, Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narinder Modi besides boasting other things asserted that
the big business houses will invest in Jammu & Kashmir and huge Industries will be set up to boost the economy and create employment avenues for the local youth. But, had the businessmen been interested in investing here, there were liberal state laws earlier also to encourage the business community in the shape of provisions for acquiring land for extendable 90 years lease with every kind of government support to create infrastructure and set up industries. In fact, several projects were coming up where besides Industrial units in Jammu region, acquired two major hotel projects i.e. Lalit Suri’s Lalit Grand and Vivanta by Taj that too with the funding from Jammu & Kashmir Bank. Both the projects are running successfully as the erstwhile state government led by Dr Farooq Abdullah even compromised on important norms and extended every kind of support to ensure the hassle-free transition to encourage others. But, despite the smooth sailing of these projects, the industrialists never expressed any urge to set up their units in J & K. In fact many times the local entrepreneurs, the governments led by Farooq Abdullah, Mufti Mohammad Syed, Omer Abdullah, and many established businessmen made efforts to woo the big business houses in India to set up their business interests in J & K, but it didn’t mature on the plea of the conservative attitude of unprofessional government officials and more importantly the prevailing security situation, they don’t want to risk the investment. Now about 15 months have passed since the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A, t no industrial project has been set up so for in Jammu or in Kashmir. The government continues its process of eroding the local laws on the plea of facilitating the purchase of land by investors and wooing them to invest which so far has failed as no such enthusiasm is exhibited by any of the business tycoons.
On the contrary, the local entrepreneurs who are running small & medium industrial units for decades now are forced to shut their units off because of the government policies which doesn’t suit them.
Thousands of SSI & MSI industrial units are at the verge of closure as they have been crying foul at the government. The Industrialists here are aghast over the government’s decision of removing Lakhanpor toll plaza to facilitate the intrusion of non-local products into J & K market thus making it impossible for local entrepreneurs to compete in the market. The reasons for inability in the competition are the local conditions, cost of labor, interruptions in power supply, low demand, corruption in government departments, and many other related issues. The government though had issued orders for the purchase of local products, but the government departments rarely follow the directives giving one or the other untenable reason to justify their preferences for non-local products.
The government can’t and should not ignore the serious sentiments and the aspirations of the local entrepreneurs/industrialists as the current situation in all industrial estates is very grim. The promoters are getting rid of thousands of their skilled and unskilled workers thus adding to the menace of unemployment, blocking of the funds of financial institutions, freezing of money circulation in the market besides many other woes to add to the problems of the general public and the government. The Indian investors too will analyze the viability through the progress & welfare of local industries before even thinking about their investment. So, in any case, government has to ease the woes of the local industries first then can dream of any bigger projects by the investors from outside the UT of J &K.
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