One of the known measures of creating self employment opportunities is encouraging, promoting and facilitating more investment in enterprises and for building a vibrant business environment in Jammu and Kashmir, industrial land, as such, is allotted to the eligible unemployed persons for setting up their ventures. Not only is such land, otherwise fetching prime market price, being given to the duly selected aspirants under proper sponsored schemes virtually free but rebates and ancillary facilities too are provided by various agencies like financing institutions, Banks, State/ (UT) Financial Corporations etc for the proposed units’ acquiring machinery and equipments etc as also for working capital requirements, power at quite cheap rates and other needs coupled with the share of seed capital or margin money paid by the UT Government. If despite all such facilities, large number of allot-tees are not going ahead with starting their enterprises and that too, without citing cogent reasons or difficulties faced if any, that is a sufficient ground to believe that the said prospective entrepreneur was not interested at all as he or she did not factually need the land or had already other avenues of earning livelihood. It is to be realised that these plots are allotted only and solely for setting up of industrial units and never for any speculative or other gainful commercial purposes.
In any case, such a suspense cannot be justified to hover over the issue, neither can, therefore, such allotment of land be allowed to be put to no use thus repugnant to what it was basically purported to be for. Either the purpose of such allotment must get accomplished by a unit duly established on the plot of such land and starting operations or straightway should be surrendered so that the same could be allotted to another really needing person. Land is scarce as it being limited in supply, has an intrinsic characteristics of appreciating in value day by day hence prudence demands not to keep it idle or languishing. It is really a sorry state of affairs that a large chunk of land in the designated industrial estates / areas in both the regions of the UT, should remain unutilised while lot of clamour is raised for not enough being done to promote and widen the industrial base in Jammu and Kashmir which is believed to be having enough potential and scope hence realising the objective of self employment programme which denotes the main promoter or the entrepreneur earning for oneself and providing jobs/ work to others too in the enterprise .
Perhaps, after having exhausted all means to motivate and persuade the “defaulting” allot-tees to change their such stance, the Jammu and Kashmir Industrial Development Corporation has now rightly given two options to nearly 600 such recipients of industrial plots to either complete all formalities by ending June 2022 (to set up and start the projected unit) or be ready to surrender the plots. We feel that such a decision should be taken to logical ends denoting that the actual end use of such plots of land must be ensured to be in consonance with what those were allotted for. In the same way, number of non- functional units too, in one way or the other, are violating the terms and conditions of the self employment programme and expansion of industrial base by keeping their units in utter dormancy. It will be advisable that such units believed to be over 400 are revived by the stipulated time.
On a comparison of facilities and the Governmental support extended to intending entrepreneurs, between other states/UTs and Jammu and Kashmir, it will be observed that much will not be found in wanting to be done besides we find that various steps are being taken periodically to ensure that industries, particularly small industrial units, did not suffer on any count and that various measures are also undertaken regarding Ease of Doing Business which could result in more investments pouring in so as to cause a push and an impetus to industrialisation in Jammu and Kashmir. We are at a loss to know that despite there being a suitable climate for business, protectionism to some extent by way of various incentives up to marketing of the products too, provided by the Government and designated agencies to industrial units, why nearly 1000 units should either be not functioning or be dormant or nonexistent in one or the other way. Otherwise also, it looks unlikely and unwarranted that possession of the allotted land should continue with the allot-tees even after not putting it to use strictly in accordance with the specific Governmental schemes.
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