Ministers wary of 24Kcr projects to take off
Last week, in the presence of chief minister Prithviraj Chauhan and minister of state for industries Sachin Ahir, the state industries department had signed 32 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) for Greenfield projects with various firms involving total investment of Rs 23,850 crore, but ministers are raising doubts over whether or not the projects will take off. The projects were aimed to create job opportunities for 20,197 people in Maharashtra.
“The government expects the huge investment to be made in the next three years. All depends on the political will of the government to provide them the basic infrastructure required for setting up a major industry,” said a senior NCP minister.
In the words of the Minister
The state energy department, then led by senior NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil, had signed 12 MoUs with a total investment of Rs 50,000 crore to supply 12500MW of power was pointed out by him. But almost nine years later, not a single project has been completed. The minister said “We signed the agreements with the hope that by the end of 2012, Maharashtra would become a power surplus state. But owing to non-availability of land and farmers’ agitation, not a single project took off,”
Chauhan should come out with a white paper on investments in the state was suggested by Senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse. “The government must explain to the people why there was no progress in implementing the power projects and fix the responsibility for failure of the administration to implement the projects.”
MoUs for investment of nearly Rs 2 lakh crore were signed, said Khadse, adding, “We were expecting a statement either from the CM or the industries minister on industrial investment in the state, but we have no information on the present status of the projects” , according to data provided by the industries department, between 1999 and 2014.
The government must release specific information on foreign tours of cabinet members and bureaucrats for attracting industrial investments were said by the government. There is a steady withdrawal of applications under the special economic zone (SEZ) policy, While the government claims a steady increase in industrial investment in the state, the senior BJP leader added “Till date, 45 entrepreneurs have dropped their plan to set up units in SEZs; it involved a total investment of Rs 40,000 crore.”
Source: Times of India
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