Advisor Skandan visits Kathua distt to get new Industrial estate, dry airport

Kathua: To promote industries and to generate employment in the State, Advisor to Governor, K Skandan Saturday visited Budhi and Ghati areas of district Kathua.
The Advisor was accompanied by Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce Department Naveen Chaudhary, MD SIDCO, Ravinder Kumar, Director Industries and Commerce Jammu Anu Malhotra, ADC Kathua Ghanshyam Singh and other senior officers of the department.
During the visit, the Advisor informed that new industrial estate will be developed at Budhi whereas a dry port will be established at Ghati in Kathua.
The Advisor directed ADC Kathua to immediately prepare and submit the revenue papers of the land to be acquired for establishing Dry Port near Sakta Chak in Ghati industrial area.
The Advisor further impressed upon the staff of SIDCO to work hard in developing industrial estates so that better facilities can be provided to the entrepreneurs.
For establishing of an IT park at Jammu division, the Advisor inspected sites at Sunjwan and Dhammi, Nagrota. The DC Jammu, who was accompanying the Advisor, apprised him that the Director Industries and Commerce has already authenticated the revenue documents of Dhammi, Nagrota site and has placed a formal indent for transfer of said land to I&C Department.
Later in the day, the Advisor and the Principal Secretary had an interactive meeting with the representative of Industrial Associations of Jammu Region and discussed various issues related to the development of the Industrial Sector in the state including, blockage of payment of many industries in PDD for material supplied under the Soubhagya Scheme, Charging of Excise Duty at Rs. 10 per litre on import of IPA (Iso-Propyl Alcohol) at Excise Post, Lakhanpur which is a raw material for many industrial units, delinking clause of the distance of destination of 1000 KM under the Freight Refund Scheme, 2018 and relaxation of norm of turnover of 2016-17 for release of 2% amount of the turnover while compensating on account of erstwhile CST exemption available to units.
Various issues related to implementation of JK- IDS (Industrial Development Scheme) were also brought to the notice of Advisor.
Principal Secretary informed the gathering that the Government is seized of their issues and many of their issues are already under the consideration of the Government at different levels with strong possibility of the issues raised in the meeting being resolved with active support of the departments involved.
Managing Director, J&KSIDCO and Director Industries and Commerce, Jammu also attended the meeting along with the officers from their respective Departments.