ANANTNAG, OCT 18: Union Minister for Textiles, Commerce and Industries and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Piyush Goyal visited Pahalgam today.
Piyush Goyal also met a delegation of Industrialists from the valley. The industrialists apprised the minister of local issues being faced by the industry. There was thorough discussion on bottlenecks in export of Kashmiri shawls. There was also discussion regarding the new industrial package and need to extend the package to existing industrial units to ensure their growth.
The Minister assured the delegation of all possible support from the central government for promotion of local industries. Taking immediate action on bottlenecks faced in export of shawls and directed the authorities to setup testing facilities at Srinagar and Delhi airport while simultaneously upgrading the local testing facilities with state of the art machines.
He also proposed the setting up of a carpet village that will act as a demonstration centre of the local craft to visiting tourists and also promote the local carpet industry globally. He laid stress on the fact that local industry players should play by their strengths and setup units where the UT has a comparative advantage to ensure sustenance of the industries being setup.
The Union Minister inspected stalls put up by various departments including Animal Husbandry, District Industries, ICDS, Social Welfare, Horticulture, Sheep Husbandry, Handloom and Handicrafts deptt. among others.
The Union minister met delegations of recently elected PRI members who apprised the minister of their participation in the planning and execution process.
Goyal directed the district administration to work out plans for homestay tourism in Pahalgam that will both boost the local economy and add to the tourist potential of Pahalgam. He laid emphasis on the role of PRIs as public representatives and conduit for directing grievances of the common masses to the district administration.
Union Development Commissioner Handicrafts, Shantmanu, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Ranjan P Thakur, Commissioner Secretary FCS&CA, Zubair Ahmad, DDC Chairman Anantnag, DC Anantnag and other officials of district administration were present on the occasion.
The Minister is on a two day visit and will inaugurate various developmental works.
