Assuring expansion of facilities for cross-LoC trade, Minister for Industries and Commerce, Chander Parkash Ganga today said there will be, however, no compromise on security issues.Ganga was interacting with a delegation of cross-LoC traders who met the Minister at Dak Bungalow here during his visit to Poonch. The traders apprised the minister about various issues and difficulties faced by them including registration of new firms, installation of full body scanner, inclusion of more items in trade list, permission for allowing mobile phones inside Trade Facilitation Centre and related issues.Speaking on the occasion, Vice-President cross-LoC Traders Association, S Krishan Singh said various loopholes need to be plugged to give further boost to cross-LoC trade and also to provide opportunities to the unemployed youth who are keen to participate in the said activity.While highlighting traders’ issues, Shahzad Khan praised former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who initiated tangible steps to boost the cross-LoC trade.
The Minister said that before registration of new firms, latest guidelines from the Government of India will be considered and only those traders who fall within the new criteria laid down by the Centre will be allowed to participate in the trade. He said the security is the priority and the government will not allow any breach of security and set guidelines.
Regarding full body truck scanners, Ganga said the government has already placed an order of full body scanners and it will take some time for installation at the Trade Facilitation Centre.While reviewing the performance of the departments under his charge, the minister enquired about success ratio of different installed industrial units and asked the concerned officers to create entrepreneur-friendly atmosphere in order to create more job opportunities and to give further push to economic activities.He called upon the officers of his department to synergize their activities to ease the bottlenecks if any, and contribute their bit in accelerating the economic activities in the region.Local legislators Shah Mohammad Tantray and Yashpaul Sharma also met with Minister and raised issues pertaining to overall development of the region. Among others BJP leader Pardeep Sharma and State Secretary BJP Sunil Gupta were also present on the occasion.