Srinagar, June 20 (KNS): Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Saturday cautioned the government of India not to play with careers of lakhs of youth in J&K whose livelihood solely depends on viability of native industrial units presently beset with government’s hostile tendering process
In a statement issued to KNS, Bukhari said the industrial sickness in Jammu and Kashmir has always been caused due to poor policy designs and its ineffective implementation on the ground. He stressed on the need for chalking out a comprehensive industrial policy for J&K in consultation with all stakeholders.
“The previous industrial policy was somehow safeguarding the interests of local entrepreneurs in tendering process and now flouting its provisions as per the whims of few bureaucrats, sitting in J&K civil secretariat or at Udyog Bhawan New Delhi, will prove highly detrimental to the interests of the people of J&K and the country,” Bukhari observed, while appealing the union home minister to intervene into the matter urgently.
The JKAP president said the J&K industrial policy 2016, though with many loopholes, had ensured viability of the local industrial units including micro, small, medium and large in view of the geographical and economical limitations faced by the unit holders.
“The inevitable cost of achieving competitive efficiency which is being projected by the government cannot be applied to J&K unit holders who are not in a position to compete with their counterparts from the rest of the country,” Bukhari observed.
He said the industrial unit-holders in the rest of the country are far more ahead in terms of availability of raw material, cheap labour costs, uninterrupted power supply and constant working allowances.
“In contrast, the J&K unit holders work only for a few months in a year and most of the time especially in Kashmir valley these units’ remains shut. Besides the J&K unit holders have a limited market and primarily depend on government tenders. How can the government equate J&K unit holders with their counterparts from the rest of the country when there is a huge difference between the parameters of industrial feasibility,” he remarked.
Bukhari said the government should accord preference to the local unit holders as per the industrial policy of 2016 or otherwise the local unit holders will have no other option but to close their units rendering lakhs of skilled and unskilled youth unemployed in both divisions of Jammu and Kashmir.
Referring to over 200 unit holders dealing with manufacturing of key material, like power distribution transformers, ST poles, ACSR conductors and electrical hardware, Bukhari said that if 2/3rd of the tendered work is not retained for the local units, the same will have disastrous consequences and will create large scale unemployment in J&K.
“The government must go by its previous model like allotting 25 per cent of the tendering work to the lowest bidders and rest 75 per cent of the work should be allotted to the local unit holders through proper bidding. This way the government can achieve industrial growth leading to the creation of employment opportunities for the local skilled and educated youth, income generation and overall economic development of the J&K,” he remarked.
He invited the attention of the union home minister towards a disquieting feature of the industrial scenario and mounting incidence of industrial sickness in J&K. “There are over 200 unit holders across J&K, most of whom left their promising careers abroad just to serve their motherland by carving a niche in the industrial sector and generating employment for the local youth. Due to adverse government policies of the government these unit holders have now turned into a disillusioned lot who need a hand holding from the government of India,” Bukhari stressed. (KNS)