Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 31: Jammu Civil Society (JCS) under the chairmanship of CA Pardeep Gandotra held a meeting of prominent citizens and welcomed the abolition of toll tax at Lakhanpur.
On the occasion, the dignitaries present were Former MLAs Kavinder Gupta, Sat Sharma and Rajesh Gupta, Former MLC Vikram Randhawa, Harinder Gupta, Former DGP Kuldeep Khooda and others, who appreciated the decision. They also discussed other issues and assured to support all the issues of public importance raised by CA Pardeep Gandotra and other civil society members.
The issues discussed were that the Government should compensate the effected industries in the shape of matching incentives so that existing local industry does not suffer, fiscal incentives in the shape of Income Tax relief and GST exemption for 10 years should cover all sectors including service and trade sector in UT of J&K, Government should explore various options to revive J&K Bank, advisories issued by various countries regarding visit by their national’s to J&K should be got withdrawn, uninterrupted internet connectivity should be ensured so that IT and BPO sector can be brought to J&K, boost to industrial sector by setting up of at least one mega manufacturing unit like metro and rail coach factory or setting up of defense production units through private participation under make in India Initiative of Prime Minister, road transport incentive should be given to industry, order on reduction of power tariff for hotel industry should be restored and registration charges for vehicles should be at par with Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.
Some others issues which were discussed include Government should promote quality education so that the UT becomes major education hub.
Government should create sports infrastructure for national as well as international competitions as nothing has been done in this direction so far, taxes on petroleum products should be at par with Chandigarh Union Territory, development of new tourist destinations and new hill stations at places like Bani-Sarthal, Pancheri-Landhar and Latti-Dudu-Basantgarh in Jammu province, tourism should be linked with Vaishno Devi and Amritsar, digitization of land records and introduction of e-stamp paper, introduction of Hindi and English language for revenue records in Jammu Division, ownership rights for commercial land to outsiders and grant of permission for purchase of residential and agricultural land after 10 to 15 years stay in J&K, policy for conversion of industrial land into freehold on payment of token premium to existing industrial units, development of modern housing colonies, permission for change of land use through single window system, improvement in ease of doing business and framing of user friendly and system driven policies for better work culture in J&K UT and mandatory purchase by Central Government Undertakings of locally manufactured Goods and Services.
Prominent citizens who were present included Vinod Sachdeva, Captain Murti Gupta, Wing Commander Joshi, Surinder Mahajan, Subash Gupta, Vijay Gupta, Ujjagar Singh, Prem Diwan, Ajay Talla, Sunandan Aggarwal, BL Gandotra, Naveen Sen Anand, Raman Samnotra, Jatinder Gupta, Rajan Gupta, Sahil Mahajan, Vikram Jain and Pragya Gandotra.