Srinagar, Mar 24: The paramilitary CRPF has started camping at the HMT watch factory premises spanning over some 2000 kanals at Zainakote on the City outskirts. This has drawn flak from the industrialists at a nearby estate who say the move was detrimental for their business complaining that the “industrial area is being converted into army base.”
 The CRPF is likely to camp its 44 Batallion Headquaters at the HMT campus, a unit “sick” for the past nearly two decades.
 The CRPF PRO, Prabakhar Tripathi while confirming the reports said the state government has allotted them the site on “temporary basis”.
 Tripathi said the earlier allotted site in use by the paramilitary had come under the road widening along the highway.
 “The CRPF camp at Shalteng is coming under the road widening so we had to shift elsewhere,” he said.
 He said the HMT site had been formally allotted to them by the civil administration.
 “Earlier, also they had provided us the location so we have shifted where we were asked to because the civil administration provides us the space,” the PRO said.
 The paramilitary deployment has irked the industrialists of the adjacent Zainakote Industrial Estate.
 The President, Small Scale Industrial Association Zainakote, Shah Jahan Khan said the presence of troops would affect the business.
 “Giving the land to CRPF is no solution… We have huge reservations on the issue because most of the industrial workers are women folk who won’t feel comfortable in presence of security forces,” Shah Jahan said in a statement.
 “The factory owners and other staff have to undergo frisking. Besides, there are barricades and such a huge presence of security forces actually harms industrial atmosphere.”
 Khan said after years of appeals, the industrialist had succeeded in getting an Army camp shifted from the industrial estate.
 “Our association had been fighting tooth and nail to get the RR camp shifted from the estate and the government had been kind enough to pay a heed to the demand. But we are back to trouble in the form of CRPF camp,” Khan added.
 He said there was a huge dearth of industrial land in the area.
 “Instead of some genuine usage the government is wasting the prime piece of land.”
 Pertinently, the Zainakote is one of the prime industrial estates in the Valley some 10 KM’s from the City centre –housing some 200 units on 300 kanal of land.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:00:00 IST