The Forum for Good Governance has requested the Information Technology department to inform about the actual number of industries that have invested in the State and the employment generated after formation of Telangana state.
In a letter addressed to Industries and IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan, FGG secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy recalled IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao’s statement that the State could attract investment to the tune of ₹3.3 lakh crore, which consequently resulted in the creation of over 22.5 lakh jobs. The forum however had doubts on the figures mentioned by the Minister and an RTI application to Industries Commissioner revealed that 23,322 industries secured clearances with likely investment of ₹ 2.67 lakh crore and 17.82 lakh jobs were proposed to be created in the process.
“The Commissioner does not have figures of the actual investment made and jobs created. In most of the cases, it is only a rough estimate,” he said.
There was wide variation between what the Minister said in the press briefings and what the Commissioner said. Scrutiny of the industries for which applications were received and permissions granted under TS-iPASS were flour mills, welding units, small engineering works and stone crushers. These sundry industries did not need any elaborate clearances.
Further, major industries which the TS-iPASS claimed were cleared were already existing like the Metro Rail, GMR International Airport and Indian Oil Corporation. He mentioned in the claim that the industries which came to Telangana because of the simplified procedure of TS-iPASS included Ramagundam Fertilisers, Yadadri and Bhadradri Thermal Power Plants and Bharat Dynamics.
“These industries are public sector industries for which many clearances are to be obtained from the Government of India and TS-iPASS has not much role to play,” Mr. Padmanabha Reddy said. There were other categories of activity which TS-iPASS claimed to have cleared and these included Aparna Housing, Phoenix constructions and My Home constructions. “These are connected to real estate and there is Real Estate Regulatory Authority to deal with and TS-iPASS has no role to play,” he said. In view of this, the FGG wanted the correct position on the subject.
