GUWAHATI, Nov 2 ? The Assam Government has drawn up an agenda for privatisation of state public sector undertakings (PSUs) and closure of non-viable PSUs. This was disclosed by the Minister of Industries and Commerce Anjan Dutta while addressing a meeting of the general managers of the district industries and commerce centres here today.
The Minister, in his address, said that the Industries and Commerce Department should lay stress on development of indigenous technologies for utilisation of the natural resources available in the State. He said that the development of small-scale sector should be the thrust area for the department in the days to come as such industries can play a vital role in the process of industrialisation. He expressed the view that the share of the industrial sector to the State Domestic Product should be increased from 13.29 per cent to at least 18 percent.
Dutta called upon the district industries and commerce centres to conduct a comprehensive potential survey of viable units based on local area requirements in collaboration with the banks and financial institutions and project profiles should be prepared so that those can be made available to the entrepreneurs. He also called upon the officials of the Industries and Commerce Department to activate the Udyog Sahayak cells.
During his speech, the Minister pointed out various shortcomings in the department and called upon the officials to take immediate steps to rectify the same. He pointed out that a large number of non-existent industrial units were given bogus registration and said that such wrongdoings send wrong signal to the potential entrepreneurs.
He asserted that such wrongdoings would not be tolerated in the department in future and warned that strong disciplinary action would be taken against anyone found to be indulging in such practice.
The Minister said that though the single window clearance system was one of the major themes of the State Industrial Policy, he is yet to receive any data regarding the effectiveness of the provision. He said that for attracting outside investments, he would personally take the responsibility of disposing proposals received for Foreign Direct Investment as well as the proposals from the non resident Indians within one week.
He also expressed the view that the PMRY lost its relevance because of non-recovery and non-utilisation of the loans due to poor monitoring of the units.