BIA president Arun Agarwal addresses the meet in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, Nov. 6: Bihar Industries Association (BIA) has requested different government departments to honour the cabinet decisions a day before the first Udyog Cabinet is being organised.

“Any policy announcement approved by the cabinet should be honoured and implemented by the departments. It has been seen that some departments treat industrial policy and other announcements of the state government indifferently and don not give any priority to them. They are generally ignored. This should not be done and with the first Udyog Cabinet on Friday, its decisions should be respected,” Arun Agarwal, president, BIA, said on Thursday.

Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi announced the Udyog Cabinet, which now comprises 18 department officials as members, during his first interaction with the industrialists at the BIA premises on June 11.

“The state government, since around two years now, has been constantly holding two of its industry-related programmes in the form of the Udyog Panchayat and Udyami Adalats. However, there are many issues, which remain pending even after the government’s intervention. We have requested the state government to ensure that all the issues raised in these meetings are heard to with matter solved. The cabinet should decide upon the same,” Agarwal added.

While the Udyami Adalats are held each week, the Udyami Panchayat takes place on the fifth Monday of any given month.

“The mid-term review of the state industrial incentive policy is pending. Things were at its final stages but it has been sent back to the department (industries) for changes. In every three years, the mid-term review of the policy has to take place and the time has already elapsed. The cabinet should decide on this on Friday and ensure that the mid-term review is completed and the policy, with changes, is announced as soon as possible. Also, to implement the industrial policy in a better way, it is important that the industries are given time-bound release of subsidies and incentives. An online system of approval and disbursement of incentives at the earliest will be appreciable and the cabinet should decide something on the same too,” Agarwal said.

The BIA said land availability should be addressed at the earliest too.

“There have been talks of the state government deciding to take land on perpetual lease rather than acquisition with landowners to be paid the same amount as compensation when acquisition takes place. This is a good initiative and the state government should concentrate more on ways in which a land bank can be created soon for the setting up of industries. Also, it will be a commendable step if the state government decides to develop three to four industrial townships in the catchment areas of Amritsar-Delhi-Calcutta Industrial corridor, which has been approved by the Centre. The corridor will give a boost to industrialisation and urbanisation in the state. Also, there is a need that Patna’s master plan and building bylaws should be announced as soon as possible. All these points have been sent to the state government upon its request and they are expected to be raised in Friday’s cabinet. Also, the problems present in the private industrial area policy needs to be looked into and addressed at the earliest,” Agarwal said.