Asem Mohiuddin
On April 9, this year when the Jammu and Kashmir administration announced the fresh industrial policy 2021-31, it was expected to usher the economically beleaguered Jammu and Kashmir into a new dawn of peace and prosperity. The new industrial policy besides aiming to attract the investors from outside Jammu and Kashmir was also throwing opportunities for the local youths to set up their own units not only to sustain their livelihood, but to provide job opportunities.
Under the policy the government had assured a single window clearance system of all the required formulates within the prescribed time period followed by the availability of land for the investors. Down the line, a few months after the policy was announced, it doesn’t seem to have brought any change on ground. It is not only the corruption that defeats the ambitions of government; however, most of the business owners allege harassment, bureaucratic hiccups, bribery in government offices, nepotism and inordinate delay in getting their files approved.
“It has been two years now that I am pursuing my file in the government offices but there seems no hope that it will get cleared any time soon. The industrial policy looks more fancy and attractive on papers only, the ground situation is different and very difficult for entrepreneurs,” says Mushtaq Anwar Ali who owns a manufacturing unit at IGS Lassipora.
The monopoly of Jammu Kashmir Bank followed by the perpetual harassment of government officers to the Unit holders have severely dent the prospectus of businesses in this industrial sector.
IGS Lassipora in Pulwama district of South Kashmir is one of the largest industrial sectors of Union Territory with over 500 units established. The area is spread over 6500 kanals of land.
“When you go to the JK Bank manager for financial assistance to set up the unit, he tries to tell us that he is paying from his own pocket or we are stealing his personal wealth. We cannot even question their behaviour since this is the only financial institution available for us,” Ali says and demands that more banks shall be encouraged setting up their business at the location.
For a Rs one crore loan, the bank has sought the mortgage of over Rs 4 crore from him.
Initially, when I applied for the loan, I was demanded the mortgage and I provided documents of my properties worth Rs 2 crores. In addition, the machinery I purchased for my unit is also mortgaged besides the land provided by the government for the unit. It is almost Rs 4 crore mortgage for just one crore financial assistance by bank,” he says.
This is just the beginning of an unending ordeal that unit holders go through. No unit holder is even happy with the functioning of the General Manager at DIC.
“When we go to the DIC to submit the documents to avail the subsidy as promised by the government, they are causing unnecessary delays in releasing the amount. They feel that this subsidy amount is something that landed into our pockets without doing anything. We are asked for a good chunk of money to get it released,” says Shafat Ahmad, another business holder.
Ahmad has been waiting since the last three years to get the subsidy released.
To mention here, after the Union government abrogated provisions of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, it had promised to bring the governance on rails and end the nepotism and corruption from the Union Territory.
The Unit holders say that the government’s commitment to bring the single window system in place has literally become the 1000 windows system.
“We agree that policies of the government are always framed for the welfare of people. But nothing such is implemented on ground by the officials who actually rule the roost in UT,” they added.
IGS Lassipora is declared as an industrial sector by the government where all the orange, green and red zone industries can be set up by approved entrepreneurs. Ironically, the government departments seek individual clearance of all cases and cause huge delays in providing the NOC.
According to the business holders, it takes them months and sometimes years to get the clearances.
“When it’s already designated as an industrial zone, why do you need to get the clearances for every unit separately. Technically, we should have been asked only to pay the fee for registration.” The unit holders allege, adding that it is a deliberate attempt by the officials to keep the process open for corruption.
The government, entrepreneurs here demand that an independent audit must be conducted to ascertain the facts why most of the units are failing here to survive.
“It is not that we are not interested in doing business. Once the audit will take place, the image will be cleared as to why most of the units fail to survive. The nexus among the officials at JK Bank and DIC will get exposed who instead of encouraging entrepreneurs are using all possible tactics to fail the entrepreneur and take over his businesses and sell it to another one to make money as brokers”.
