PALPA, Aug 7: The government plan of setting up an industrial village in Palpa is in limbo.

In the budget speech for Fiscal Year 2016/17, the government had announced a plan to build an industrial village in Palpa district for promotion of local industries. The government had allocated Rs 10 million for the purpose in the budget. The budget was reduced to Rs 5 million in FY2017/18. But nothing has been done to implement the plan.

The government had authorized District Cottage and Small Industries Office to implement the program. The office had formed an ad-hoc committee and even selected sites in Baghkore village in Tansen Municipality Ward 7 and Kaseni in Mathagadhi Rural Municipality. The ad-hoc committee had duly forwarded its proposal to the Department of Cottage and Small Industry. 

Bal Krishna Gaire, chief of District Cottage and Small Industries Office, said that the process of building an industrial village in the district has come to a grinding halt as the department did not respond to their proposal. He also said the project did not move ahead also because of lackluster attitude of local political leaders as well as the private sector.

"The plan to build industrial village has remained in paper as we have not received development modality and working procedure. Not a single political party and local businesspeople showed interest to prepare working procedure and development modality," he regretted.

The ad-hoc committee formed by the office had proposed to acquire 50 ropani of land (25,437 square meters) for the industrial park. But we couldn't start land acquisition process as the consent from the government never came, added Gaire.

The ad-hoc committee comprised of representatives from the District Cottage and Small Industry Office, Survey Office, District Administration Office, and Palpa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

Private sector leaders in the district, however, point fingers at the government. Mohan Prasad Shrestha, president of Palpa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said they actively scouted for land plots in Tansen and surrounding areas for the industrial village. "But the concerned government agency did not follow up the matter with the central government offices," he added.