Hinting at considering the revival of POSCO steel plant project in the State, Minister for Heavy Industries R.V. Deshpande has said that he would look into the project once he takes over his new portfolio.
Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a function to lay the foundation stone for a government polytechnic college at Zalki village of Indi taluk on Tuesday, he said that he would only decide on the project after studying the details.
It may be noted that POSCO, which was planning to establish a steel plant in Gadag district, withdrew following resistance from farmers who were not ready to offer land for the project.
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It is now said that farmers, who were against the project, have now changed their mind and want the government to bring back the project.
Mr. Deshpande’s hint that the project may be revived assumes significance at a time when farmers are showing interest in the project.
Refuting allegations that Hero Motorcorp chose to shift from Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh as it did not get support from the government here, Mr. Deshpande said that though the company had been assured of all facilities, it decided to relocate its plant.
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“The government cannot be blamed for the decision of the company to relocate. The government was ready to offer all facilities, yet the company decided to shift. In such a case, the government cannot do anything much,” he defended.
To a question, he said that his primary focus after becoming Heavy Industries Minister would be to attract more investments in the industrial sector.
The government plans to hold the Global Investors Meet in November this year to attract investment in the State for various industries.
Hope for job aspirants
Meanwhile, Mr. Deshpande, who is yet to officially relinquish the Ministry of Higher Education portfolio, said that he would speak to Union Human Resources Minister Smriti Irani to take into consideration the degree offered by Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) while selecting job aspirants through KPSC.
Several aspirants, who have KSOU degrees and were hoping to get jobs through KPSC, were denied interview after the University Grant Commission derecognised all degree courses conducted by KSOU in 2013. The KPSC said that as the courses itself have been derecognised, thus the qualification was not valid as per norms.
Mr. Deshpande said that he would urge Ms. Smriti Irani to make the required changes to help job aspirants as they had not committed any fault on their own.
Earlier, speaking at the inaugural function, Mr. Deshpande said that to make students of higher education compete at the global level, the Congress government had adopted modern technology in education.
He said that high-end technology such as EDUSAT, Cloud technology, Tele-education and virtual education had been introduced by the government.
Regretting that only 24 per cent of the State’s students completed higher education, Mr. Deshpande said that his government’s objective was to increase this number. “To meet this objective, it is important that parents encourage their children to study; without their cooperation, it is impossible to achieve the target,” he said.
Congress MLA from Indi taluk Yeshwantraigouda Patil thanked Mr. Deshpande for granting Rs. 8.5 crore for constructing the polytechnic and a degree college in his constituency.
District in-charge Minister M.B. Patil and MLC Arun Shahapur spoke.