JAMMU : The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) Jammu urged Navin Kumar Choudhary, IAS Principal Secretary to J&K Government, Department of Agriculture Production and Farmer’s Welfare, Animal and Sheep Husbandry Department and Horticulture Department to extend the lease deeds of shopkeepers at Fruit Market Narwal here at Chamber House .
President CCI Arun Gupta along with Chamber team after welcoming Navin K Choudhary to Chamber House held extensive discussion on various issues confronting trader community of Jammu region.
On the occasion, the welcome address was presented by Gaurav Gupta, General Secretary CCI Jammu.
The Chamber President apprised the Principal Secretary that nearly 40 years ago in the year 1980-81, the Sabzimandi Parade and Fruit Market at Jewel were shifted to Narwal.
“The traders were allotted land there on lease hold rights to carry on their business. The land was developed with the help of concerned traders by JDA and later by the Horticulture Planning and Marketing Department. The traders constructed their shops/offices on the allotted land for which they had taken loans and obtained bank limits to carry on their business against lease hold properties.
Now the lease period of most of shops has expired in the year 2021 and the lease period of remaining shops is expiring by the end of March 2022. The banks are refusing to extend their bank limits etc and the insurance companies are not providing insurance facilities to these traders in absence of extension in the lease periods”, Gupta said.
Arun Gupta maintained that upto year 2015 the department had provided the facility of transferring the leasehold rights but after 2015 the process was stopped due to reasons best known to concerned helmsmen. He said that due to financial crises, division of families, old age, illness or loss in the business, the original allottees have executed “Power of Attorney” to carry on their businesses.
“At present almost 50 per cent shop sites are occupied by the attorney holders. The banks/financial institutions are not providing financial help to these traders due to non-transfer of shops etc. in their favour”, he said and appealed to the Principal Secretary to give due attention to this genuine issue.
Besides, he also appealed to Naveen K Choudhary to stop the export of raw paddy which is going outside from Jammu and Kashmir to ensure sustenance of the existing rice units.
Arun Gupta said that J&K UT has been declared as procurement zone for the past few years. “Last year J&K has procured 2.40 lakh quintals of wheat but here the consumption is 7 to 8 lakh quintals per month. This clearly means that UT of J&K is a consumption state and not the procurement state.
FCI has stopped the sale of wheat in the procurement states therefore it is requested to convert UT of J&K into non-procurement zone so that FCI floats fresh tenders for the sale of wheat”, he said and urged Naveen K Choudhary to take immediate steps with regard to aforesaid issues to bail out people of the UT from the grave crisis.
After giving a patient hearing, the Principal Secretary assured that all the demands putforth by the Jammu Chamber shall be considered and necessary action shall be taken as per the extant norms including extension of lease deeds, transfer of rights and building permissions for shops in the Mandis.
The Principal Secretary Agriculture also asked CCI members to avail benefits of different schemes launched by the government in agriculture and other sectors for better business performance. Among the major schemes, he emphasized on Agriculture Infrastructure Fund and Formalization of Medium Enterprises.
Vishesh Mahajan, JKAS, Director Horticulture Planning & Marketing also accompanied the Principal Secretary.
Those who were present in the function Anil Gupta, Sr. Vice President CCI, Rajesh Gupta, Secretary,CCI Rajesh Gupta, Treasurer CCI Rajesh Gupta,Working President VHP, Sham Langer, Om Shah , Suresh Gupta, Ravinder Sawhney, Deepak Gupta, President Trader Federation Warehouse Sh, Surinder Singh Kala, Mohan Lal, Jagdish Langer, Rakesh Gupta, Anil Gupta, Narinder Gupta and others.
