State re-examining IT policy: Minister

Notices to firms that were allotted lands but did not start operations

The Jagan Mohan Reddy government in the State is taking a re-look at the IT policy formulated by the erstwhile TDP government.

Speaking during the Question Hour in the Legislative Council on Thursday, IT Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy said the government was re-examining the IT policy and a new ‘realistic’ policy would be in place soon.

He said notices would be served on companies that had been allotted lands but had not started operations so far. He said the State would take the lands back from them.

The Minister said in the TDP rule, there was no defined method of granting incentives to the companies. “Incentives at what cost?” he asked, adding: “Should we become slaves to the investors.”

Mr. Reddy said there was a need to formulate a ‘realistic’ policy and “we will achieve our goals in the next five years.”

Lokesh explanation

Taking objection to his remarks, the former IT Minister and TDP MLC Nara Lokesh intervened to explain how the previous government had worked relentlessly to attract investors to set up shop in the State.

“In 2014, Andhra Pradesh did not have any IT companies. The IT industry cannot be developed overnight. We need to develop an ecosystem for the companies to come here. It took 25 long years for the IT sector to develop in Hyderabad,” he said, informing that as a result of the hard work of the TDP, 65,000 jobs and investments worth crores of rupees were in the pipeline.

Mr. Lokesh said unlike in Hyderabad or Bengaluru, Andhra Pradesh did not have the ecosystem needed for the IT sector and thus there was a need to offer incentives to them. He cited the examples of Foxconn’s smart phone manufacturing facility in Sri City, the Adani Group’s offer to invest over ₹70,000 crore in a data centre over the next 20 years, and the Reliance group, that had shown interest to come to the State.

Responding, Mr. Reddy said the Adani Group chose to come here because it was in the advantageous position. “Moreover, in its DPR, the firm had asked for one favour but the TDP gave it 10,” he said. With regard to the Reliance group, the Minister said there was no clarity yet as to who was the real promoter of the proposed venture.