The Industries and Commerce Department of the Sindh government has urged President Zardari to take notice of the bureaucratic hurdles and help resolve the pending issues with federal and provincial governments, Business Recorder learnt on Wednesday.
The bureaucrats both at the federal and provincial level were creating hindrances in process aimed at boosting industrialisation in Sindh due to which the industries sector was facing severe hardships, according to sources.
The president had intervened into the matter a few months back and directed authorities concerned to resolve the pending issues however his orders fell on deaf ears as no progress has been made so far, they said. Sindh Minister for Industries and Commerce, Rauf Siddiqui has recently forwarded a letter to President Zardari urging him to take serious notice of the situation and help resolve these issues, they informed.
Sources said that the chief minister of Sindh had announced to waive off the condition of 50:50 cost sharing by Sindh government and the Sindh Industrial Trading Estates (SITE) Limited on development schemes couple of months back. The Planning and Development officials were creating hindrances in this process, defying the orders of the provincial executive.
The schemes included water supply from Keenjhar Lake to SITE Nooriabad with a total cost of Rs 940.739 million and installation of 5MGD filter plants in Hyderabad worth Rs 100 million, they added. They said that the progress on development and management companies in SITE Nooriabad, Kotri, Tando Adam and Sukkur had been stalled as PC-Is submitted were not approved by the P&D department.
No funds have so far been released by the Sindh government in pursuance of the inauguration of SITE Larkana by President himself despite the fact that all PC-Is have been submitted to the P&D department, they said. Furthermore, sources said the Planning and Development Division of the Federal Government had not yet removed the restrictions of 50 percent export by industries for infrastructure scheme of SITE Limited with a cost of Rs 2 billion despite repeated convincing pleadings.
They said that the federal authorities had also not provided matching grant of Rs 1 billion for development and management companies in Korangi, Landhi, FB Area and North Karachi industrial estates despite regular correspondence of Minister Rauf Siddiqui with the Ministry of Finance besides completing all the formalities. The minister would take up the matter with the president who is expected to visit the city in a day or two, sources said.