Uttar Pradesh industry and traders feel that political parties in the country, both national and regional, have largely ignored their interests in the manifestos.
They lament that none of the parties in general talked about developing the industry or providing a more conducive investment or trading environment in the country especially in the present times of global meltdown and recession.
“There is no road map for economic development in their manifestos with regard to finance, taxation, industrialisation and trade,” PHD Chamber of Commerce resident director Brig (Retd) Amitabha told Business Standard.
Talking about UP in particular, he said power, tax reforms, eradicating red-tapism and ushering in a single-window clearance system should have got the top priority for faster economic development.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) UP State Council vice-chairman Jayant Krishna said though the manifestos talked about industry, it was “not adequate” though.
“There should be greater focus on industry and trade in the manifesto of political parties, since the overall well-being of the Indian economy, including agriculture, depends upon it in modern day,” he said.
UP elects the maximum number of MPs, which is 80, and has the largest population estimated at almost 200 million.
Polling for the first phase will be held on April 16.
The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector accounts for 60 per cent of the total industrial output of the state. There are over a lakh small-scale and medium units in UP.
“The political parties have no economic agenda. They just want to appeal to their popular vote bank during election time. Their manifestos are a big let down this time,” said Assocham secretary general SB Agarwal .
Echoing similar sentiments, All India Udyog Vyapar Mandal president Sandeep Bansal said, “We want security to traders and industry and abolition of inspector-raj completely. Besides, certain sections of outdated Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) and Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA) should be removed.”
Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal president and Rajya Sabha MP Banwari Lal Kanchal demanded reduction of income tax rates and accident insurance scheme for all traders in the country.
“The manifestos do not mention about the burning issue of organised retail, while lakhs of small retailers are now out of job. There is no survival strategy for the small retailers during current recession,” said Awadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry secretary Chandra Kumar Chhabra.
Chhabra said power crisis continued to haunt the UP industry and trade for the last several years, but no party was talking about it.
Indian Industries Association executive director DS Verma said there were over 12 million MSMEs in the country providing livelihood to almost 250 million people, the largest employer after agriculture.
