Govt’s global investors’ summit a failure: Cong

Demands issuance of while paper on MoUs worth over Rs 2.50 lakh crore done by government with industrialists earlier

Raipur, November 03, 2012

Congress on Saturday said the government’s much-hyped global investors’ summit proved to be a damp squib as majority of participants had already established their industrial units in the state.

“That the government patting its back by parading state industrialists is the truth which even people of Chhattisgarh have realised. It should be ashamed of the activities which are intended to deceive people,” said Congress spokesperson Rajesh Bissa.

He also demanded issuance of white paper on memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth over Rs 2.50 lakh crore that the government had done with the industrialists earlier.

“About six-seven years back, the government spent several crore rupees on its ambitious projects like IT park, food park, etc but none has been established by far. Similarly, government did MoUs to generate 60000 MW power with different industrialists. According to these pacts, Rs 2.50 lakh crore should have invested in power plant units, but no concrete development has taken till date,” he said.

“Let the people know what happened to those pacts. The industrialists, who signed major MoUs earlier but could not bring the projects to practical ground, have once again entered into new agreement with the government in this investors’ summit. This is sheer deception,” he added.

Dismissing government claims that the state has conducive atmosphere for investment, Bissa asked how come it be when the industries get electricity at higher rate from the government than private power generating units.

“The government provides electricity at the rate of Rs 4.80 per unit to the industries while the private players provide it at the rate of Rs 3.30 per unit. The government should clarify how any industrial unit will progress by purchasing electricity at higher rate from it,” he said.

“Presently, frequent power cut done by power companies is major cause of annoyance for industrial setups as they have to incur huge loss due to it. Moreover, the government has appealed to Central Regulatory Commission to lend permission for further hike in power tariff” he said.

Further targeting government on its increased Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) claims, Bissa cited the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that said state’s growth rate continuously declined from 25.28% in 2006-07 to 11.06% at present.

“Similarly, sector-wise GSDP in production, energy, construction, etc dipped from 51.80% to 21.39%. The government should tell whether its figures are wrong or those given by CAG,” he said.