Thursday, 07 December 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Terming the hype generated by the State government for the upcoming Global Investors Summit-2023 as a tactic to divert attention from its failures, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara has said that the government should come out with a white paper on migration of industries out of the State in the last few years.
Interacting with the media persons at Rajiv Bhawan here on Wednesday Mahara said that when Uttarakhand was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on November 9, 2000, the State had almost no industrial units. He said that a visionary leader such as Narayan Dutt Tiwari successfully persuaded the Union government to give a special ten-year package for industry in the year 2003 which boosted the industrial growth in the State.
The PCC president added that the UPA government brought the MSME policy in the year 2006 to encourage the small and micro industries in the country as a result of which these industrial units constitute 40 per cent share in the total export of the country. He said that a large number of industrial units in Uttarakhand have either closed down or have migrated out of the State due to lack of infrastructure and other facilities.
The Congress leader said that the government lacks a plan to attract industry in the mountainous areas and the State lacks the facility of cold storage to support its agriculture and horticulture products. He said that during the Congress party rule the State government had made a compulsion that 70 per cent employment in the industries will be reserved for local youngsters. He claimed that this policy was reversed by the BJP government. Questioning the motive behind hiring American blacklisted company Mckinsey by the State government, Mahara said that a sum of Rs 80 crore is paid annually to this company but it has done nothing in the last one year.
He said that a similar investors summit was also held in the year 2018 and at that it was claimed that investment proposals worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore were signed. It was also claimed that seven lakh jobs would be generated. Mahara said that the government should tell as to how many proposals signed during the summit in 2018 have been put to ground.
The PCC president alleged that the BJP government has also removed the compulsion that the investor will set up the same industry for which the agreement has been signed and for which the land is provided to him. He said that land was allotted to the BJP leader Vinod Arya for setting up a candy plant but he later changed the plan and constructed the Vanantra resort where Ankita Bhandari was murdered.
Mahara said that on one hand the government is claiming that employment opportunities will be created by the investors summit but on the other hand it is snatching employment of people by removing vendors, potters and small businessmen from the roads of the city.
