RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.27: The Jharkhand chapter of tribal traders’ body, Tribal Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (TICCI), through a letter to Chief Minister Hemant Soren has attracted his attention towards tribal entrepreneurship in the present situation.
TICCI state president Baidyanath Mandi through a letter first lauded the effort of chief minister Soren of creating an industrial atmosphere and his new Industrial and Investment Police 2021 and then punched a hole in it saying tribal youth, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in the state are being ignored.
Despite ranking fifth in ease of doing business, the path is not easy for the tribal entrepreneurs in Jharkhand as despite completion of approximately two years the state government has neither come out with any policy on tribal entrepreneurship nor executed old schemes properly.
Mandi alleged that the Jharkhand Procurement Policy 2014 is only on paper as none of the departments has executed it. The policy has no provisions for STs and SCs.
The letter reads that the government has approved the provisions of providing land to SC and ST at half the price for establishing industries in March this year. This was already approved in a meeting of the industry department held under the chairmanship of then chief minister Raghubar Das in 2019 but so far notification to this effect has not been released.
The letter reads that chief minister Soren’s declaration to give priority to local, SC and ST contractors in giving contracts of work involving up to the limit of Rs 25 crore is also on paper. The condition of job creation is the same as loans of beneficiaries are yet to be approved though they have already deposited their margin money six months ago.
Tribal youths, the letter reads, have to struggle hard to get a guarantor-free loan of Rs 50,000 as the concerned officials do not know about the way to execute the scheme.
