The Uttar Pradesh cabinet today approved the Industrial Investment and Employment Policy, 2017 to boost investments and employment opportunities in the state.

A cabinet meeting, presided by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath here, gave its assent to the new policy which aimed to “roll out a red carpet for the industries, instead of red- tapism” and facilitate the ease-of-doing-business, ministers Siddharth Nath Singh and Satish Mahana told reporters.

Industrial Development Minister Mahana said the new policy was aptly named as the Industrial Investment and Employment Policy as it aimed to increase the job opportunities in the state.

Besides a single-window system for time-bound clearance of all project-related works at the chief minister’s office, the policy also aimed at providing round-the-clock electricity, improving the infrastructure and ensuring a proper law-and-order situation, for which there would be dedicated police teams in big industrial clusters such as Gautam Budh Nagar, he added.

The policy redefined the mega projects and linked the investments with employment generation, besides establishing a new ‘Make in UP’ department to derive the maximum benefits of the Centre’s Make in India scheme, said the minister.

An investment promotion board would also be set up under the chairmanship of the chief minister and a wide network of water, rail, air and road connectivity would be established to facilitate the industries, he added.

An excise policy and a pharma market policy would follow soon, Mahana said, adding that through the new industrial policy, the government aimed to bag investments, which otherwise came in five years, in a year.

Roadshows would be held in the state as well as at other places to woo the investors, the minister said, adding a “big roadshow” would be organised later.

“A mega investment meet will be organised in October-November and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited,” he said.

Lamenting the absence of a “proper industrial policy worth its name” in the state for the last 15 years, Mahana alleged that the previous governments had attached “no importance” to industry and employment generation.

Singh said the cabinet also took a major decision on promoting the drip irrigation method among the farmers of the state “in a big way“.

It was decided to increase the existing 55-per cent grant for small and marginal farmers to 90 per cent and for others, from 45 per cent to 80 per cent as an incentive for adopting the drip irrigation method, he added.

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