Bhuvaneshwar, Nov 19 (KNN) The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the state have urged the Centre to constitute a special corpus fund for assisting MSMEs overcome the slowdown the sector is going through.

North Odisha Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI), the largest industry body in the northern region has urged Union Minister of State for MSME Pratap Chandra Sarangi to take a step for a special corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.

The association further stated that a number of MSME units are turning sick and suggested that the corpus fund can be used for rehabilitating the units.

Reportedly, NOCCI president S K Khetan said the centre should also ensure that the banks are following RBI directives in letter and spirit to provide a simpler and faster mechanism to address the stress in the accounts of MSMEs.

Meanwhile, Convenor of NOCCI Amit Behera said MSMEs are still running from pillar to post for small matters which often remain pending at different offices for months for small reasons.

''A grievance handling mechanism on the line of Project Monitoring Group (PMG) of Prime Minister Office is the need of the hour under the facilitation of the MSME Ministry,'' he added.

The association said they need real ease of doing business (EoDB) to keep their attention on production and marketing.

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