29K units in zones not meant for industries in Haryana

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 22

With over 29,000 industrial units found in the non-conforming zones (not meant for industries) in four districts of Haryana during a survey, the Industries Department will now carry out a similar survey in the remaining districts of the state. The Urban Local Bodies has been asked to ascertain the “ground truth” of the identified units and formulate a plan for such units. According to the survey in the four districts, Faridabad has 15,412 units in the non-conforming zone against 6,048 in the conforming zone while Panipat has 7,487 and 3,318 such units, respectively.

In Yamunanagar and Rohtak, the number of units in the non-conforming zone is 3,329 and 3,383, respectively, while there are 1,413 and 793 units in the conforming zone among the total number surveyed through last year.

Of the 41,183 units surveyed, 29,611 were found in the non-conforming zone and 11,572 in the conforming zone.

Sources in the Industries Department said that while work on phase II of the survey of the units in the remaining districts beginning with Gurugram, Sonepat and Karnal is all set to begin, the Urban Local Bodies is also learnt to have identified certain pockets with clusters of units which can be declared as “conforming zones” after suitable changes in the master plan. “Regular meetings are being held between the two departments to fast-track the entire process,” an officer explained.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Integrated Association of MSMEs of India, Rajiv Chawla, said that it had already been four years since such a move was announced but things don’t seem to be moving at the expected pace.

“There are nearly one lakh such units, mostly micro or small, in each district in non-conforming areas. These units are deprived of bank loans and govt subsidies because they do not have the required compliance — factory licences and the requisite consent to operate from the Pollution Department. If these are regularised, it will become a win-win situation for everybody. These will grow and provide more employment. We are looking at the government to make some quick decisions to regularise such pockets since the demand of plots has not matched the supply in the past,” Chawla said, adding that his own district, Faridabad, had the largest number of such units.