Short of staff, MSME council struggles to settle 400 cases

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

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Jalandhar, December 2

Four years ago, a micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) council was set up in the district to provide speedy resolution to problems of local industrialists. To date, of 1,000 cases, 400 related to industrialists remains pending.

The council is dealing with staff shortage that is why it is becoming difficult to dispose of the cases early. The council needs staff who would take orders, update files, send notices, etc.

Notably, earlier the cases were referred to the headquarters of the council in Chandigarh. But after the formation of the council at the district level in 2018, the cases pertaining to Jalandhar got transferred here. Some even date back to 2011.

The council comprises five members — deputy commissioner as chairman; general manager, District Industry Centre, as member secretary; an advocate; a lead district manager; and an industrialist. It has been established to solve the matters of small-scale industrialists and to help them get payments from other parties in case the latter do not return their due amount (payments).

As per the rules, the cases must get solved in a time span of 90 days but it is not happening right now due to various reasons.

MSME council member Shant Kumar said they had decided to take 10 cases as ‘model’ cases and would see if they would be able to solve these in 90 days. “In the council, it was not necessary that the industrialists who were putting up the case had to take help from an advocate,” he said.

Was set up 4 years ago to help industrialists

In 2018, a micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) council was set up in the district to solve the cases of small-scale industrialists and to help them get payments stuck with other parties.