Industrial Policy fails to improve the economic condition

Shillong, May 18 (UNI) The existing industrial policy in Meghalaya has failed to improve the economic condition of the state's indigenous people, according to the Review Committee on 'Meghalaya Industrial Policy, 1997'.

''The existing policy looks good on paper but it failed to translate into action,'' Urban Affairs Minister Paul Lyngdoh told reporters yesterday after a meeting between the Review Committee and frontal NGOs. The organisations were Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People, Hynniewtrep National Youth Front, Khasi Student's Union, Khasi Women Welfare and Development Association, Meghalaya Indigenous People's Forum, Khasi Women Welfare and Development Association and Ri-Bhoi Youth Federation.

Mr Lyngdoh said the policy was like a mismatch between intention and actual performance, adding the present industrial policy had led to the growth of fly-by-night operators who take the industrial process for a right.

''The NGOs favoured amendment in the Industrial Policy of 1997, which, according to them, failed to kick-start industrial development in the state,'' the minister observed.

The Review Committee constituted by the government was to examine the effectiveness of the existing industrial policy. The Committee was also assigned with the task of comparing both the state and central industrial policies.

Moreover, the Committee had been asked to suggest measures to cope with the power crisis in the state and ways of protecting environmental degradation due to setting up of industries. The Committee had also been asked to identify labour intensive industries in order to provide greater incentives to these to generate more employment.

UNI