While Chief Minister is busy building ‘highways’ for outsiders’ state subjects are choked in official bottle necks
Jammu, November 06: Taking a cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ‘Make In India’ and ‘Ease Of Doing Business’, the state Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has set on a path of ‘make in J&K’ offering ‘ease of doing business’ on a platter to outside industrialists but back home the local entrepreneurs are choked in the official bottle necks of bureaucratic red tape and political apathy.
While it is a welcome step on the part of chief minister who is personally taking interest to woo the Bollywood and the likes of Ambanis’ inviting them to invest in J&K what he forgets is that he is overlooking the local entrepreneurs who are getting killed due to official apathy even as we have numerous business houses who can spend millions if given a fair chance.
The current spell of wooing outside industry smacks of the colonial mindset that everything foreign is good while local is always ‘desi’ in the myopic view of the powers that be.
Since Mufti lead coalition was a ray of hope for the people of both the regions the local industry still faces the same bottle necks and only people closer to power corridors are given a chance on individual basis and not on merit.
Mufti being a seasoned politician with lot of experience should have known that the residents of the state must be the first to get the opportunity for expanding their business and investing in their own state.
If we take a cursory look on the local industry and business houses we find that J&K has produced not only army chiefs, chief justices and top doctors but also top business guns who have proved their mettle in the state and outside it but hardly get a treatment that outsiders get by the government machinery here.
How many business houses from the state have been encouraged by the state and wooed by relaxing rules and regulations in the state having constitutional barrier of Article 370 and PRC for the outsiders who still get away with lions share from our business.
Don’t we have business houses in every sector that have excelled more than others but never get the due recognition? How many crores would Ambani invest in state? Why can’t J&K offer same relaxation to its own business leaders who have worth to invest in billions if given a fair chance?
What the government however does for the local entrepreneurs is to create hurdles on land acquisition, and other legal impediments discouraging them to invest in their own state and forcing them to flee the state and invest in other states where they have grown by leaps and bounds.
Don’t we have leaders in education sector, business, industry, cement, spices, and other fields who have always to bribe the officials to get their work done while outsiders get a red carpet reception and relaxation in taxes, and norms despite article 370 and PRC in force.
The Earth News will begin a series of such articles to highlight how government was overlooking the local people and wooing others who come here only for profits, get relaxation and run away.
One wonders when people from J&K can build software empires, medical institutions, pharmaceutical companies in India and some of them in places like Australia, Europe and USA but not in J&K.
The current government needs to take a closer look and not kill the local entrepreneurs while wooing the outsiders for which same Modi can be taken an example who build Gujarat with the help of Gujaratis’ and not from people of other states.