The Congress party on Thursday alleged that the Vedanta Foxconn project has moved its proposed project to Dholera under pressure from the Central government despite the earlier MVA government’s offer for a better package than Gujarat.
Since Dholera is an inconvenient place, many companies including I S M C Digital which proposed manufacturing semiconductors like Vedanta Foxconn have chosen to withdraw from the same place, said the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Sachin Sawant.
“According to the internal report of Vedanta Company, Talegaon in Maharashtra was the suitable place for this semiconductor project. A comparative study of both Talegaon and Dholera was conducted and Dholera was given less preference citing various reasons like lack of water supply, skilled labourers, electronics manufacturing ecosystem, absence of supply chain vendors and secondary manufacturers, and also marshy land. Though Maharashtra had offered several concessions including more capital subsidy than Gujarat, the decision to move the project to Dholera has been taken only under the pressure of the Central government,” Sawant said.
When Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he announced many non-feasible projects in the state and wasted thousands of crores of taxpayers' money, the Congress leader said.
“Recently, three companies applied when the proposal was invited for semiconductor manufacturing with an estimated investment of $10 billion in the country. One of them, I S M C Digital (ISMC Digital) was supposed to come at Dholera. The company has however, fled from Dholera due to lack of facilities and water availability. Interestingly, Gujarat government had signed a MoU with this company,” he added.
Jiophone, a joint project of Google and Reliance, left Dholera and moved to Tirupati. Earlier, Lockheed Martin Corporation withdrew from the solar battery project. Hindustan Construction Company had signed an MoU to build a waterfront city worth Rs 40,000 crore at Dholera. But after paying some money for the place, it withdrew, Sawant said.
More projects in Dholera stalled
Lashing out at the Shinde-Fadnavis government for losing the project, Sawant said it would have provided employment to Maharashtra and income to the country. “There is a possibility now that project would be stalled for a long time due to stubborn attitude of the Central government. Just like Dholera, Gift City project was also stalled. International Financial Services Centre which was to come in Maharashtra was moved there as soon as the Modi government came to power. The Financial Centre would have brought a huge investment in Maharashtra benefitting all. But the Central government did not allow it to happen,” he alleged.
When Modi was the Chief Minister, the Gujarat government forced the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation to take Rs 10,000 crore worth of bonds, showing that it had found gas reserves. No gas was found, and the company became debt-ridden. ONGC was forced to buy GSPC by Modi government, he said.
PM Modi has claimed to have promised Maharashtra a bigger project than Foxconn, but the state does not need his grace for such a big project, Sawant said. “Maharashtra has always remained number one in the field of industry on its own merits. It is unfortunate that BJP leaders are weakening the state to fulfill Modi's dream of making Gujarat successful by snatching projects from Maharashtra,” he added.
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