With unavailability of land being one of the prime reasons for investors shying away from Assam, the new BJP government has decided to address the issue immediately and with “sincerity” and “honesty”.
The state’s industry department has taken creation of a ‘land bank’ for industry as a target for first 100 days. Setting up of a ‘single window clearance system’ too figures in the 100 days to-do list for the department.
Chandra Mohan Patowary, Assam’s industry minister, told Business Standard that the industries department has identified around 2,100 bighas of land lying unused and which once belonged to now defunct public sector companies and mills. It wants to make these lands part of the ‘land bank’ and make them available for the industry.
“We have found that many industrial lands are now lying unused with the revenue department. These lands once belonged to closed mills and public sector companies. We will soon take up the matter with the revenue department and claim those lands to form a land bank,” Patowary said.
Non-availability of land had been the “single largest” issue impeding investments in Assam, feels the industry. “Non-availability of land has become a serious issue in Assam and the sooner the government addresses it, the better it is. All the investment proposals that did not materialise in recent past had land-availability problem,” R S Joshi, chairman of Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER), said.
The industry body is of the view that even unused agricultural land should too be converted to industrial land in Assam. Patowary said that while creating the ‘land bank’ “it will be seen that no inhabitants are evicted.
The department will set up a ‘single window agency’ and operationalise a ‘single window portal’ for investors soon. ‘Single window clearance’ system would be set up at district headquarters for facilitating potential investors and “to eradicate corruption”. The ‘single window portal’ would minimise public-official interface and make filing of at least 70 form online. “If an investor has to visit office 70 times to file 70 different forms, who will come to set up industry here,” quipped the minister. He said the entire ‘singe window clearance system’ had been very “efficiently” designed and probably was the “unique” in the country with every process integrated into the work flow management.
The department has also set the target of operationalizing the first phase of plastic park in Tinsukia in first 100 days. The minister said the first phase of 10,000 square feet would be commissioned soon. The industries department has already received 20 applications from interested investors to set up units in the park.
The park is being set up to attract downstream plastic industries, which would use the produce of Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL), also known as the Assam Gas Cracker Project, which was commissioned recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is situated in neighbouring district of Dibrugarh.
The state assembly had on 3 June passed the ‘Assam Ease of Doing Business’ bill unanimously and the minister said necessary notifications in this regard will be issued soon.
