Chief Secretary vows to solve investors woes

Visakhapatnam: The industries which are yet to be grounded due to pending clearances and also that of companies which entered MoUs in the International Partnership Summit held in January last, will be addressed in a month’s time, assured Chief Secretary S P Tucker.

He held a meeting with all the industrialists of north coastal Andhra and East Godavari districts here on Thursday. Tucker informed that many industries, IT companies, pharmaceutical and NRI companies will be coming to Andhra Pradesh in the next two years with which the State could register a growth rate of 15 per cent besides generating 50,000 jobs by March next.

He felt that Vizag district will become hot destination for establishing industries since Vizianagaram district is set to get an international airport and also will be developed as industrially zone, he added. The industrialists who attended the meeting appraised the Chief Secretary about the problems being faced with regard to the land, power and No-Objection Certificates from the fire, pollution control board, labour and sales tax departments.

Responding to the problems, Tucker enquired from the officials concerned and redressed most of the problems across the board. He suggested the officials not to discourage industrialists by citing petty reasons and to work with a positive attitude by taking quick decisions with regard to the payments or permissions in real—time mode.

Noticing that about 150 applications are still pending with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) citing problems of which majority of objections are from the fire wing alone, the Chief Secretary warned of action if the same lethargy continues. He asked the officials of Fire Wing to attend the meeting to be convened in Vijayawada next week with all details.

Of the 23 companies entered MoU for establishment of Tourism industry, only three companies are at the final stage and with this, the tourism industry will take a back seat in Vizag, he cautioned. He also informed that International Partnership Summit will be held here for three days from January 27, 2017.

Later, responding to the Collector Praveen Kumar who informed that of the total 94 companies audited, except 12, all industries are not functioning properly and only 16 companies have submitted self-certifications, the Chief Secretary suggested him to convene a workshop with all industrialists and educate them about the rules and received representations from 45 company representatives with regard to their problems.