Ware House Traders call on LG Manoj Sinha, highlight various issues

Jammu : A delegation of office bearers of Traders Federation Ware House nehru Market under the presidentship of Deepak Gupta called on Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and submitted a charter of demands highlighting the issues and demands of the traders and people of Jammu as a whole.
During the meeting, Deepak Gupta appreciated the efforts of Lt Governor for giving his valuable time and bringing J&K on the path of development. Raising the issue related to traders, Deepak Gupta said that in most of the States, e-way limit is one lakh but in J&K, it is only 50,000/- which should be raised to one Lakh. He also requested to extend the time limit of e-way bill taking into consideration the hilly roads of this UT.
Deepak Gupta said that the goods which are shifted from godowns /cold storage to shops should be treated as stock transfer. If there is mention in the bill “ for shifting of stock” from one place to another place, there is no need to generate a fresh e-way bill as it is a technical point and needs to be understood. But instead of understanding these technical problems, officials of GST department are hell bent to damage our business interests by putting Nakas at various places enroute from Lakhanpur to Jammu and harrassing to the members of trading community by resorting to undue checking of their vehicles carrying goods from Lakhanpur to Jammu and on way to kashmir. This whole process is useless because whatever material traders are bringing from outside JKUT, has already been purchased through e-invoice but authorities harass traders on the name of e-way bills. Officials who instead of providing a feasible atmosphere have resorted to undue interference in our working, posing serious blow to our business which is already in doledrums due to instability in the National and International Markets.

Demanding ownership rights and godown space for warehouse, Deepak Gupta said that the oldest wholesale market of Jammu is facing lot of congestion due to lack of space with an increase in the business establishments since 1956. Traders facing lot of problems because they don't have any space for night stay of outside traders who come to ware house for business activities. Thousands of workers are forced to spend nights in open because they can't construct shelters for them. He requested to give ownership rights to shopkeepers so that they can construct rooms on the first floor of shops for night stay for labour and outsider traders. He also requested that separate land should be allotted to shopkeepers to construct godowns so that they can store commodities and save the edible commodities from scorching heat and torrential rains.
Raising the issue of change of land use, Deepak Gupta said that after the removal of Article 370 and 35A, Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi has dreamed of making Jammu and Kashmir the industrial center of the country but there are some problems at the ground level which should be addressed. All knows that Jammu does not have enough developed industrial land for investment. In such a situation, investors are being motivated to start an industry by purchasing land in the private sector, but this is not happening because when land has to be bought for the industry in the private sector, the land use of the land is changed to commercial. Due to which land becomes very expensive. In these circumstances no investor will buy land at commercial rate and set up industry in Jammu.

Opposing the smart parking rates, Deepak Gupta said that Smart city project is a very good project but some steps like costly smart parking facility is giving bad name to this prestigious project. These smart parkings have been made on the roads without much investment by the government but the parking fee here is four times more expensive than a normal parking lot, whereas parking should have been cheaper here.

Raising the issue of gair mumkin khads, Deepak Gupta said that the issue was cleared to close it in time bound manner by the Administrative Council and thereafter Govt order dtd. 4.02.2022 was issued by constituting a so called three tier committees to settle the issue in a time bound matter once for all but the said order not bothered by Deputy Commissioners as being heads of committees. The Dcs of three districts were asked to complete the whole process by 03 months but no final outcome was seen on ground despite a lapse of 04 months. This speaks the harrassment caused to the general public and above all non compliance of orders.
Deepak Gupta also raises the issue of power and water crises in Jammu and non availability of Senior Doctors in Government Medical College Hospital Bakshi Nagar Jammu.
The Lt Governor gave a patient hearing to the visiting delegation and assured that he will pass necessary directions to the concerned Principal Secretary for early consideration of the demands.
The delegation comprised of Munish Mahajan, Sr, Vc. President, Abhimanyu Gupta, Vice President, Sham Lal Langer, Secretary General, Vishal Gupta Secretary and Amit Gupta, Cashier of the Federation.