Industry struggles with automatic permission on Saral portal
Industrialists based in Manesar said that they had been facing a lot of problems in uploading documents and information on the Saral portal for the past several days.
The new online system launched on Tuesday for industries to obtain automatic approval for the resumption of work during the lockdown remained slow and erratic in the city. The new system is part of the Saral Haryana portal, which has given a tough time to city-based industrialists for the last two weeks, who have found it to be slow and non-responsive. The automatic permission to industry and business were to be granted from Monday but the state industries department launched the new online system for automatic approval on Tuesday.
Businesses in the city have been asking the state government to expedite the process of granting permission to industry to start operations, after relaxations were announced by ministry of home affairs on April 20.
Industrialists based in Manesar said that they had been facing a lot of problems in uploading documents and information on the Saral portal for the past several days. “The new module must expedite permissions but for the past several days, the industry is facing problems due to lack of permissions and movement passes,” said Manmohan Gaind, vice-president, Manesar Industries Welfare Association, adding that he was very hopeful that the new system, which had become functional in the afternoon would improve things.
Confusion also prevailed among industry owners on whether units with less than 10 workers need to apply for permission or not as per guidelines issued on April 30.
Manoj Jain, Manesar based industry owner, said, “We applied for the resumption of operations with 10 workers but the system rejected my application. I spoke to an official and he told me I did not need any approval. However, the department of industries and commerce (DIC), Gurugram has made it mandatory for every industry to apply for approval.”
A major difficulty faced by the industry owners was that they were not being able to upload documents on the portal and that the system was too slow. Deepak Maini, president of industrial development association, Sector 37, said, “Our members told us that a few applications were accepted but system did not generate approval at all. There were 10,000 applications pending for approval but there has been revision of the guidelines several times that has led to confusion,”
In Udyog Vihar, the industry owners said that they wanted the government to do away with permissions for smaller units, which have up to 10 workers. “We are ready to submit the documents manually and also file the affidavit. But, there is an urgent need to accelerate this process.”
The industrialists are also worried that so much delay, they will be left with no manpower, as many migrant workers have started returning home. “There could be a massive shortage of labour if the permissions are delayed further. A lot of workers have returned and many are ready to go back to their states. If the situation is not checked, we could face shortage of labour,” warned Manmohan Gaind.
The authorities, however, said that they have streamlined the system and upgraded the portal, which will facilitate the permissions with ease.
Digvijay Singh, joint director, DIC Gurugram, said, “One can apply online with the correct documents and f acts and can get approval automatically. We do not need to approve applications anymore. Now and as per new and latest guidelines, every industry has to apply. This system has been introduced on Tuesday. The system may be slow because of the rush of applications. But the technical team is looking into the matter.”
The industries and commerce department Haryana on May 3 issued the latest guidelines that superseded all the previous guidelines.”These guidelines shall supersede and replace all the previous guidelines issued by the department so far,” stated the order by principal secretary, Haryana government.
According to this guidelines, in a city like Gurugram which is in the orange zone, industries can be opened under automatic approval system with 75% workforce for the first week and 100% workforce on the second week(May 11-18).In Gurugram, there are 10,000 industries employing over 11 lakh workers.