Industry seeks Rs250 cr for amenities at BBN zone

“There should be alternative routes to approach various areas in the BBN to make transportation easy. Apart from this, water bodies should be made free of effluents to avoid pollution of ground water,”

— Sanjay Khurana, BBNIA chief

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, January 27

The Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) has demanded a one-time mega grant of Rs 250-crore for the Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh (BBN) Development Authority to provide civic amenities in the zone.

In a pre-budget memorandum submitted to the government, the association has demanded a master plan to make the area livable and creation of infrastructure.

“There should be alternative routes to approach various areas in the BBN to make transportation easy. Apart from this, water bodies should be made free of effluents to avoid pollution of ground water,” said association president Sanjay Khurana.

He said the government must ensure that the incentives announced for the power sector were actually available as a slew of contradictions among various arms of the government made it difficult to avail these.

Given the grim Covid scenario, the association said there should be no enhancement of wages in 2020-21.

“To enhance the competitiveness of the industry, the association demanded abolition of entry tax, additional goods tax, certain goods carried by road tax and toll tax which are not subsumed into the GST,” added another member.

The creation of municipal corporation for the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area, SDM office at Baddi as well as extending one year for construction in an allotted plot should be notified in view of the pandemic.

Investors also vouched for constituting a state-level GST tribunal for appeal of any dispute at the zonal level, which is mandatory as per the GST Act. The state has just one appellate authority that too with additional charge.