Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

SEZ application of 18 IT firms blocked: Chandy

Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy has accused the Chief Minister’s office of blocking the proposals of 18 information technology (IT) companies for Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status to help the promoters of Smart City project.

In a statement here on Sunday, Mr. Chandy said the applications of these companies had been pending clearance for the past several months. He said the Industries Department had given the green signal for the proposals and the Chief Minister’s stand was to give priority to the marketing of Smart City before these companies got the SEZ status. He wanted to know the reasons for blocking the proposals and whether such a stand would be beneficial for the development of IT sector.

Mr. Chandy said the government had conceded several concessions to the Smart City project. Mr. Achuthanandan, while he was Leader of the Opposition, had evaluated the cost of the Keral State Electricity Board’s (KSEB) Brahmapuram property at Rs.350 crore four years ago. His government, later, fixed the price of the property at a mere Rs.7.57 crore. He termed as totally baseless the Chief Minister’s repeated statements that the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government headed by him had made an agreement to transfer Infopark free-of-cost. The UDF government had agreed to transfer the Infopark and 62.72 acres of land at a cost of Rs.109 crore. The 3.5 lakh sq.ft. building had been valued at Rs.35 crore, and the land was valued at Rs.74 crore at a rate of Rs.1.18 lakh a cent, he said.

After the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power, it had sold 22 acres to Tata Consultancy Services, IBS, and L&T at a rate of Rs.69,000 a cent. The Chief Minister should clarify why it had settled for such a deal against his own repeated statement that Infopark would be retained as a public sector undertaking. The UDF government’s Smart City agreement also did not impose a ban on establishing IT companies either by the government or government agency or a private promoter. Mr. Chandy picked holes in the employment potential in the Smart City project, stating that the 90,000 jobs promised did not involve direct employment and there was no guarantee that jobs to that extent would be generated.

The LDF government’s Smart City agreement merely states that attempts would be made to generate 90,000 jobs.

Mr. Chandy said the UDF government had to overcome strong protests from the Left parties while promoting industrial investments, including Smart City project. But these were the only projects that were now being implemented by the LDF government.

The net result was that Kerala had to pay a heavy price for the LDF’s stand.

The LDF government had to incur Rs.120 crore and Rs.60 crore to revive the Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) and the Capital Region Development Projects respectively. If it had saved the additional amounts, it would have been better placed to tackle price rise and rice shortage to reach relief to the people, he said.

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