Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, while presiding over an interactive meeting with the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) at Baddi in Solan district today urged the industrialists to provide their wholehearted support and cooperation to the State Government to effectively fight the pandemic for which a working group of government functionaries and representatives of industries could be constituted. Jai Ram Thakur said that the State Government was also planning to perform second ground breaking of the MoUs signed during the Global Investors Meet held at Dharamshala on 7th and 8th November, 2019. He said that due to the entrepreneurs friendly policies of the State Government, the State has been ranked 7th in Ease of Doing business ranking, which was a big leap from 16th rank. He said that efforts would be made to prepare detailed master plan and infrastructure development study for comprehensive development of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area and for exploring possibility for developing new township in the area. He said that the industrial lockdown was not a solution to control the spike in Covid cases as this would adversely affect the State economy. Chief Minister said it was also the responsibility of the industrialists that their workers strictly follow the guidelines of the State Government. He said that the makeshift hospital at Nalagarh was ready to meet out any eventuality as this has been created to provide this industrial area better Covid care facilities. He said that this makeshift hospital has a bed capacity of about 66 beds. He said that proper coordination between the State Government and the industrialists must be established to chalk out strategies to effectively fight this pandemic.Jai Ram Thakur said that the industries must keep a close watch on workforce and isolation process of infected person and his/her contact. He said that strict working protocols must be adopted and individual isolation centers be created by large industries and common isolation centers by small units. He said that the industrialists of Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh area have played a major role during the first wave of Corona last year.
He said that be it preparing life saving drugs or preparing hand sanitizers and masks or generously contributing towards the CM Covid Fund and PM CAREs the industrialists played a significant role. He said that due to sharp surge in the Covid-19 cases, it was the need of the hour that the industrialists provide wholehearted support to the State Government to face this challenge.Chief Minister said that all the genuine demands of the entrepreneurs would be considered sympathetically. Megh Raj Garg announced Rs. 11 lakh towards CM Covid Fund on behalf of Steel Industries Association.President Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association Sanjay Khurana thanked the Chief Minister for proactively taking initiative to reach out to the industrialists to ponder over the issues regarding the sharp increase in Covid-19 cases. He also thanked the Chief Minister for resolving the long pending issue of Pinjore-Nalagarh four lane national highway by agreeing to bear Rs 15 crore additional cost and speeding up of land acquisition work for Chandigarh-Baddi rail link. He also detailed a few initiatives taken by the industry to check the pandemic. He also urged the Chief Minister for creating a Disaster Management Cell at Baddi with adequate strength of workforce. He urged for strict vigil by local administration on Covid-19 behavior by all stakeholders.General Secretary of the Association Y.S. Guleria presented vote of thanks.Chairman, CII Himachal Shailesh Agarwal presented a demand charter to the Chief Minister.IMJS Sidhu, S.K. Thakur, Ashok Rana, Ram Gopal, Anurag Puri and other captains of the industry shared their views with the Chief Minister.Health Secretary Amitabh Awasthi said that that the State Government has decided that a special drive would be launched to vaccinate over 100 persons in an industrial unit. He said that the industrial houses must also explore facilities to retain the people going in and out from the State, particularly from high load States.Health Minister Dr. Rajiv Saizal, MP and State BJP President Suresh Kashyap, MLA Doon Paramjit Singh Pammi, Vice Chairman Water Management Board Darshan Singh Saini, former MLA K.L. Thakur, Deputy Commissioner Solan K.C. Chaman, SP Baddi Rohit Malpani and members of BBNIA were present on the occasion.