Jamshedpur, Aug 5: Adityapur Small Industries Association ( ASIA), one of the largest and oldest industry association of Jharkhand state is all set to go to polls on August 7.
The biennial elections will take place for the post of president as for all the other posts of office-bearers the candidates have been elected unopposed.
Two candidates are in the fray –Santosh Khaitan and Rajiv Ranjan. Both of them are currently the vice-presidents of the leading industry outfit of the region. They are in the contest for the prestigious post of the president currently held by industrialist Inder Agarwal.
In all there are eleven posts of office bearers – four secretaries, four vice-presidents, a general secretary, a treasurer and the president.
Agarwal confirmed that except for the post of the president, all the other office bearers have been elected unopposed.
The elections will take place through secret ballot. In all there are about 700 bonafied members comprising industrialists and entrepreneurs, who takes part in the biennial polls.
The two year term of the present committee led by Inder Agarwal ended in July.
About a dozen odd ancillary units of automobile major Tata Motors have either shifted there base outside state or are in the process of moving out in the backdrop of poor response of the state government.
Post economic slump rise in the production target of the auto major, Tata Motors has in turn delivered ample opportunity to the ancillary units to increase its production capacity and go for expansion but lack of land required for the plant expansion is taking its toll on the entrepreneurs.
Restraining from divulging the names of the units that have discreetly moved outside state the industry representative just informed that about four ancillary units have shifted their base to Pune (Maharashtra) Panthnagar (Chhattisgarh) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) while at least seven are likely to shift their base outside state in the current fiscal.
“Land is the crucial aspect of any expansion plan and if the government doesn’t pay attention on time than hardly there is any reason for the entrepreneurs to stay for long,” noted a senior member. For long the industrialists have been seeking cooperation from the state government in addressing their grievances particularly on specific issues of land, electricity water and road.
“The work order is pouring in after several months of lull owing to economic slowdown and now at the height of the work pressure we are running to AIADA (Adityapur industrial area development authority) every now and then for early breakthrough in our expansion plans,” said Arjun Agarwal, an entrepreneur who deals in manufacturing nuts and bolts of the truck’s wheel.
