Set up industries or give up land: KTR

Hyderabad: The Telangana Government is all set to crack its whip on the industries which failed to set up the production units in the lands allotted at subsidised prices under various industrial promotional schemes mainly TS-iPASS. State Industries Minister KT Rama Rao warned of retrieval of all lands from the erring industrial bodies and also instructed the state Industries department to serve show-cause notices on the managements which did not comply with the norms to establish the units before the deadline set by the government.

The companies, which failed to set up the industries under the 'change of land use policy', will also face action soon. It has come to the government's notice that a few industries were exploiting costly lands for other commercial purposes. Most of the industries have got the lands at throwaway prices and the managements have been asked to set up the units and provide employment to locals. The minister held an in-depth review with top officials on the progress in the establishment of industries in the government allotted lands and enquired about the reasons behind the delay in taking up the projects by some companies in Greater Hyderabad. He expressed anger on the non-utilisation of allocated lands by a few companies and asked the officials to take necessary steps for retrieval of the lands.

KTR asserted the government was liberal in the allotment of land to the investors to promote Telangana as a destination for manufacturing industry and offer huge employment to the skilled youth. The government will not show any leniency if any industry failed to achieve the targets set during the allotment of land. The minister also instructed the officials to prepare a Blue Book with full details of all companies including small, medium and big which will help the government to ascertain the status of progress of every industrial unit from time to time.

The proposal to establish India's biggest pollution-free Pharma City was also discussed in the meeting attended by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and top officials of state Finance and Municipal Administration and Urban Development department. Master planning, including the establishment of Zero Liquid discharge units in the pharma city was also deliberated in the meeting. KTR asked the officials to open skill development training centres near industrial zones to help upgrade skills among local youth for making them employment-ready. He also instructed officials to speed up the pending division of State Finance Corporation between AP and Telangana states under AP Reorganisation Act.