Governor Vohra urges Centre to give incentives to J&K industries at par with North Eastern states

New Delhi, Aug 8 (KNN) To catalyze the industrial development in Jammu & Kashmir, Governor NN Vohra has urged the Government of India to extend the similar incentives to the state as available under the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS)-2017 to the industries in North Eastern states.

Through a written communication addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Minister for Industries and Commerce Suresh Prabhu, Vohra asked for their intervention in state in providing incentives available under NEIDS to promote investment, industrialization and socio-economic stability in the state.

He wrote “It may not be purposeful for me to reiterate the various serious challenges we face in J&K, due to which micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector continues to rely heavily on the varied support provided by the government.”

"While we are taking all possible initiatives to provide skills to our youth to establish their own enterprises, we shall not be able to achieve the envisaged headway unless we succeed in attracting large-scale investors," he added.

Requesting Centre's support in this direction, Vohra said the several investors in J&K have withdrawn their commitments even after allotment of land and conclusion of lease deeds.

Besides this, Governor said J&K needed robust handholding for channeling the sustained investments for economic development and employment generation.

He also conveyed that J&K suffers from several serious disadvantages, including geographical remoteness like long distances from the major markets in the country, poor connectivity, infrastructural gaps and weather-related problems, which deter investments in the state.