The industry representatives have urged the Orissa government to remove various bottlenecks coming in the way of setting up of industries in the state.
The problems include the delay in land acquisition, land allotment, absence of PPP (public-private-partnership) modality for infrastructure development, allotment of mines, water and laying of pipelines.
Participating in an interactive meeting with chief secretary Tarunkanti Misra, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) yesterday, the industry representatives pointed out the problems in getting assured supply of ores, logistic bottlenecks and frequent shifting of project sites are leading to an alarming increase in project costs. Besides, the slow progress in grant of Prospective License (PL) for mineral reserves was cited as a major concern for the industries. In this backdrop, they suggested that the senior government officials should be made nodal officers for a group of companies for obtaining all approvals or allocations expeditiously.
They also pleaded for extensive use of Information Technology (IT) for real time tracking, preparation of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) mapping report and setting up of an incubation centre for MSME.
Similarly, separate land should be allocated for common disposal of solid and hazardous waste and setting up of an independent authority in each industrial cluster may be considered by the government. During the discussion the government insisted on the provision of improved employment opportunities for the locals at different skill levels and improving the skill level of the youth by establsihing skill building institutions like Industrial Training Centres (ITCs) and polytechnics.
The state industry department has already asked the industries investing more than Rs 1000 crore to set up two ITIs and companies investing less than Rs 1000 crore to set up one ITI in their respective areas of operation.
The government also asked the industries to ensure higher value addition of their products within the state through development of down stream activities, promotion of MSME enterprises for ancillary products and better focus on vendor development. That apart, they should have a comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan, it felt. This interaction process would be carried forward with another meeting to be chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on 15 January 2010. Industry secretary, Saurabh Garg, Development Commissioner, Satya Prakash Nanda and Chairman, CII Orissa Chapter, S. S Nandurdikar were present in the meeting.
