U'khand urges PM to extend industrial package

STAFF WRITER 15:31 HRS IST

Dehra Dun, Nov 3 (PTI) Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to extend the period of industrial package to the hill state, which ends in March next year.

The industrial package, which the state got in 2003, provides various incentives such as exemption from excise and income tax to company's for setting up units in the state.

In a letter to Singh, Kapoor said if the period of industrial package was not extended beyond March, 2010, it would adversely affect the industrial growth in the state, which has only limited number of big industries.

Kapoor said it would also affect the future of thousands of youths who are working in different industries.

He said since about 60 per cent of land Uttarakhand is under forests, the Prime Minister should look into the demand "sympathetically".