Govt to set up panel to give clearances in 3-month time frame for businesses: Gadkari

The government will set up a panel to provide necessary clearances needed by businesses within a time frame of three-months in a bid to attract foreign investment in MSMEs, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Sunday.

Addressing Chartered Accountants Association of India, the minister informed that aJoint Secretary level officer has already been appointed to look after the foreign investment in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

"We are going to formulate a committee where we will give all types of clearances within 3 months and at the same time, there will be no red tape, full transparency, time bound decision making process, qualitative approach and no corruption," Gadkari said.

The committee will be set up in coordination with states and the central government as stakeholders, and a policy will be framed in this regard, the minister added.

Earlier in the day, addressing the Dalit Industries Chamber of Commerce of India, he said the government was making efforts towards decentralisation of the industry.

"There is a centralisation of industry in areas like Mumbai, Noida, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Chennai. We need to diversify this and that is the need of the hour," Gadkari said.

He said the government was formulating a policy on how investment can be made more attractive in backward and tribal areas.

Gadkari said that he was willing for a leather cluster to be set up on the Delhi-Mumbai highway.

"We will also give plots and residential accommodation to people residing in Dharavi slums, create a Smart City with airport, port and station connectivity," he said, and asked leather industry representatives to take up the initiative with the help of the Maharashtra government.

He also urged people to move out of Dharavi, observing that the situation there was grim.

Gadkari suggested the leather industry to prepare a plan for the proposed cluster on the Delhi-Mumbai highway.

The minister said he will also talk to the Maharashtra government in this regard.

The cluster will provide a good alternative to people to shift out of Dharavi, he added.