Gujarat Chamber raises environmental and infra issues with top officials

Gujarat, Jun 18 (KNN) Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) held a meeting with the senior government officials where issues related to Environment, GIDC and Textile Industry were discussed.

The meeting which lasted for almost three hours was joined by GCCI office bearer’s along with representatives of regional chambers and a few associations.

The delegation included representatives from regions such as Surat, Vadodara, Ankleshwar, Nandesari, Dahej, Rajkot and Jamnagar region.

The delegation met Dr. Raj iv Kumar Gupta, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries & Mines department. Other senior officers such as Sanjeev Kumar, IAS, Chairman, GPCB, Dr. Rahul Gupta, IAS, Industries Commissioner, M Thennarasan, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, GIDC, Shri Ranjeeth Kumar J. MSME Commissioner, AV. Shah, Member Secretary, GPCB and Neelam Rani, MD, iNDEXTb were also present in the meeting.

According to a press statement on Thursday, the meeting witnessed discussion over environment related issues such as Marine Deep Sea discharge norms, Land availability for Common infrastructure facilities, creating hazardous waste facilities within GIDC, legal actions in case of unintentional accidents, extension of Atmanirbhar Policy till 2023 etc.

The discussions were held on issues related to GIDCs included matters such as change in date of allotment due to delay in providing infrastructure facilities, transfer fees, refund of infrastructure fund, extension of moratorium period for setting up facilities in GIDC etc.

''All the representatives from industry were heard patiently and a very short time frame for resolution of the issues was provided by Dr Gupta,'' the statement added.

The delegation also met Arun Kumar Solanki, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and Environment department and issues related to GPCB were also discussed during the meeting.

The delegation also discussed the issue of non-allowance of net metering on rooftop for more than 1 MW was taken up and it was suggested that this restriction should be removed as no other state has such a condition. It also discourages industries to set up solar rooftop projects.

The matter regarding underground cabling under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode was also discussed and it was informed that industry is willing to contribute 20 per cent of the cost under such an arrangement.

''Suggestions related to Gujarat Solar Policy 2021 were also submitted,'' it said.

Lastly, the issue of insistence of DISH certification for Fire and Industrial Safety equipment was discussed with him and it is now agreed that Fire Safety equipment having fire and safety certification can be used.

Issues related to Fire License and Fire NOC were also deliberated in the meeting.