Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 14: Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today directed constitution of a high-level Committee headed by Chief Secretary BB Vyas to follow the cases of payment of rent in respect of industrial units against whom rent is due from police and other security agencies.
The Chief Minister passed the direction while chairing seventh Industrial Advisory Committee meeting here today.
She said the Committee will conclude the process at the earliest.
Mehbooba told the meeting that the Government was working to facilitate industry and trading community here as Jammu and Kashmir is the first on many counts to incentivize businesses and industry.
“Jammu and Kashmir is also the first State to roll out incentives under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and even major reforms in labour laws in the State were undertaken by the present Government,’’ she said.
Mehbooba was briefed about a number of steps being taken by the Government to ease business activity in the State.
The meeting was informed that the process of providing round the clock power supply to Industrial Estates is on with laying of infrastructure, cables and transformers. Also, the meeting was informed, many items have been removed from the negative list of items being imported into the State on the suggestions of the trade representatives.
During the meeting, many of the representatives thanked the Government for rolling out many incentive schemes for business and industrial sector and taking steps for encouraging business activities in the State.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister unveiled the latest issue of Sanat o Hirfat, a coffee table book of the Industries Department detailing the facilities, incentives and opportunities in the field.
Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh; Minister for Industries & Commerce, Chander Parkash Ganga; Minister for Finance, Dr. Haseeb Drabu and Minister of State for Industries & Commerce, Asiea Naqash were present in the meeting.
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal; Principal Secretary, Finance, Navin Choudhary; Commissioner/ Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Shailendra Kumar; Administrative Secretaries of various other Departments; representatives of trade and industry and other senior officers also attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, Mehbooba stressed on developing knowledge industry in the State and working out necessary infrastructure to create quality human material at the national level.
Speaking at the presentation of recommendations of the Knowledge Initiative set up by the Government some time back, the Chief Minister said with the coming up of many institutions of higher learning in the State there is a consequent opportunity to create a knowledge hub which would lead to a knowledge industry where by the State can produce quality human material at the national and international levels.
Agreeing with the recommendations of the report, Mehbooba asked for converting it into an Action Plan and thereby executing the same for creating a knowledge industry in the State. She said there is a need to re-work the relationship between academia, industry and job market for which she said the recommendations would be of great value.
The Chief Minister said there is a need for making our education knowledge based with all the inputs of a local system whereby the passed out of a course are automatically trained for a job based on the knowledge gained. In this regard, she stressed on working out apprenticeships, incubation centres and other interactions between colleges and the industry.
The meeting was informed that the report of the Knowledge Initiative was more of a stakeholders’ analysis based on the interactions with students, teachers, industry representatives across all the three regions of the State.
Minister for Education, Syed Altaf Bukhari; Advisor to Chief Minister, Prof. Amitabh Mattoo; Chief Secretary, B B Vyas; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal; Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Dr. Asgar Samoon and other senior officers besides representatives of Knowledge Initiative were present during the presentation.
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