AP industrial policy to focus on helping weaker sections socio-economically

Hyderabad: A year after coming to power in Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress government headed by chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is preparing to unveil its industrial policy focusing on helping the weaker sections both socially and economically.

At a meeting held on Thursday, the industry and commerce ministry officials told the chief minister Reddy that steps were on to “provide basic infrastructure to encourage industries which will help the weaker sections socially and economically.”

In a statement, the Andhra government said, “The Industrial Policy 2020-23 will focus on removing regional disparities, environmental issues, pollution control and employment generation, among others.”

The officials also told the chief minister that the focus in the proposed new industrial policy to be unveiled in the next few days was being laid on “attracting foreign investment” and to reduce the time span in helping them establish industrial units.

During his interaction with the bureaucrats, chief minister Reddy advised them to take special interest in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector.

Reddy advised the officials to take care to “check the polluting industries as controlling pollution is equally important to incentives” the government offers to attract investments.

This assumes significance in the backdrop of a series of industrial gas leakage accidents in Andhra over the last few weeks, killing a few and injuring hundreds.

CM Reddy was of the view that controlling pollution would be easier if the industrial parks were set up in clusters on a sectoral basis, while advising the officials to ensure strict adherence by the industries to the pollution control guidelines.

In the backdrop of the government’s July last year law reserving 75% jobs in private industrial units to the locals, the chief minister also asked the officials to focus on skill development initiatives. The government hopes that the proposed high-end Information Technology Skill University coming up at Visakhapatnam should open a new chapter in the state’s IT sector.