Sri Vijaya Puram, Jan 13: The Adhyaksh, South Andaman Zilla Parishad Mr. Prakash Adhikari led a delegation to meet Union Minister of MSME Mr. Jitan Ram Manjhi in the Lok Niwas Annexxe at Corbyns Cove.
The Adhyaksh welcome the Hon’ble Minister with Floral bouquet and Angvastra and introduced all members of the delegation. The main issues in length discussed was opening of new Industrial Estate especially in Rural areas as the land mass in Municipal area was seized, Secondly the non-conversion of land for Industrial/Commercial use is depriving the youth entrepreneurs for which it was proposed by the Adhyaksh that Small and Micro enterprises may be allowed to setup their enterprises in the land other than commercial land also so that they can avail loan from Banks thereby rural employment could be generated in this sector in these Island. It was also raised that one of the main obstacle for the MSME is the higher rate of water and Electricity tariff. A detailed discussion on the newly introduced Draft Industrial policy was presented which is against the existing MSME, for which objection from all corners were raised including from the Hon’ble Member of Parliament.
Several other issues were presented that currently no UT plan schemes for the support of MSME is existing, exemption of EMD and Security Deposit for MSME registered firms, Creation of shoreline Industrial Estate with dedicated Infrastructure for ship building and repair works of Fishing, Tourism boats and construction of Boats etc.
The Hon’ble Minister assured to take up the matter with the concerned authority and accepted to arrange a meeting with higher officials of Ministry, UT Administration and stake holders in the Ministry to resolve the bottlenecks for the growth of MSME sector.
The Adhyaksh expressed gratitude to the Hon’ble Minister for sparing such a long time for hearing the issues of these remote islands. The members of the delegation was Mr. Jaydeep Kumar Dey, and representative of Laghu Udyog Bharati Mr. Anil Goyal and Mr. Seetharam Sharma.
