Manzoor-ul-Hassan
Srinagar, Aug 06 : At least 255 applications from individuals and organisations to establish factories and other businesses in Jammu and Kashmir are pending for registration by the Industries and Commerce (I&C) Department, according to official data.
Almost 80 percent of these aspirants belong to the Jammu Division with over 140 applications received from the Jammu district alone, reads the data.
The ‘Registration of Societies’ is one of the primary services provided by the Jammu and Kashmir government under its ‘Single Window System (SWS)’ program. This program has a dedicated portal for all such services since 2022.
Under the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) of 2011, the registration procedure should take 30 days. However, the average time taken to complete the registration procedure by the I&C department has been more than 100 days.
So far, the agency has given 134 society registrations under SWS, with just 81 applications completed within 30 days. At least ten applications have been rejected, while another fifteen are currently under process.
These applications are part of the investment plan under the new industrial policy launched by the government after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
The inordinate delay in the registration process for opening factories, manufacturing units, and other business establishments in the Union territory has allegedly discouraged many aspirants and investors, per official sources.
Notably, the industries department has received over 5,000 online applications for land allotment since November 2022, pledging an investment of nearly Rs. 60,000 crore. The applicants have also proposed to set up factories and other industrial units with an employment potential of over 2 lakh jobs—(KNO)
