Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 5
Haryana has moved from third place in 2018 to 16th place in the “Ease of doing business” rankings for union states and territories published by the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Domestic Trade.
Bhupinder Hooda, leader of the opposition
BJP is exposed
The BJP’s six-year no-direction rule has created a situation where far from new industries being established in Haryana, even existing ones are leaving the state.
Among other states and union territories in the region, Himachal Pradesh ranks 7th, Delhi 12th, Punjab 19th, Jammu and Kashmir 21st, and Chandigarh 29th.
According to the report released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, Andhra Pradesh topped the rankings for the third time in a row. The rankings are based on the implementation of the 2019 Business Reform Action Plan.
Posting a jump of 10 places in the rankings, Uttar Pradesh ranked second in 2019 compared to 12 in 2018. Telangana fell to third position from second in 2018. It was followed by Madhya Pradesh (fourth), Jharkhand (fifth ), Chhattisgarh (6th), Himachal Pradesh (7th), Rajasthan (8th), West Bengal (9th) and Gujarat (10th).
Delhi’s position improved to 12th from 23rd, while Gujarat fell from 5th place in 2018. Among the laggards, Assam was 20th, J&K 21st, Goa 24th, Bihar 26th and Kerala 28th, with Tripura ranked 36th and last.
The exercise aims to promote competition between states with a view to improving the business climate to attract domestic and foreign investment. This was the fourth edition of the report, which was first published in 2015.
The Business Reform Action Plan 2018-19 includes 181 reform points that cover 45 business regulatory areas such as access to information, the single window system, labor and the environment.
Meanwhile, the opposition leader, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, took aim at the BJP government today after the drop in Haryana’s “Ease of doing business” rating.
He said that with Haryana dropping 13 places from third to sixteenth place, the government was exposed and it became clear why the state had reached the top position in unemployment.
He said that the government had organized “Happening Haryana” in 2015 and claimed to have signed a memorandum of understanding for
Rs 5.87 crore lakh. In response to an RTI allegation filed in 2019, the government had admitted that only 4 percent of this highly publicized investment came through and there was no significant increase during this period.
Hooda said that during the term of Congress, Haryana was number one in investment per capita and IMTs were opened throughout Haryana for the industrial development of every part of the state. He said the situation had become such that industries were forced to lay off workers or were thinking of moving to other states due to deteriorating conditions.
He said that due to poor private sector conditions and layoffs in the government sector, Haryana had risen to the top in unemployment.
Hooda said the declining business had also affected the state’s economic condition, putting it under a growing debt burden. She said that a strategy must be formulated to improve the state’s fiscal and commercial situation.
