Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Dharwad district in-charge Jagadish Shettar has said that the industrial scenario in the State would be back to normal in a couple of months as they were expecting return of migrant workers within two-three months.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr. Shettar said that migrant workers who had gone back to their native places because of the fear of COVID-19 pandemic were likely to return to the State as their main objective of coming to Karnataka was that they could not find jobs in their respective States.
Admitting that many of the industrial units had been hit by reverse migration of workers, he, however, maintained that many industries had resumed operations now and soon they would be back to normal with the return of migrant workers.
The Minister said that the stimulus package announced by the Union government had been well received by the industries. He said that the ₹ 3 lakh crore package for small and medium enterprises would help them come out of the crisis and initiate growth. Referring to the grievances in the sector, he said that they would be addressed soon.
Taking a dig at the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his comments against lockdown and relaxation measures, the Minister said that instead of standing by the side of the Union government in a time of crisis, Mr. Gandhi and his party were making unnecessary criticism.
To a query on the relaxations being given under lockdown even as the number of cases were increasing, Mr. Shettar defended the action saying that livelihood was as important as life. He said that lockdown was imposed to save lives and now being relaxed to create livelihood opportunities and give a fillip to the economy.
‘Helpless’
On the demand for withdrawing the property tax hike in the twin cities, the Minister said that the State government was helpless and it could not initiate complete roll back of the hike as the municipal corporation was duty bound to increase taxes every three years. This apart, reforms also mandated hike of taxes by urban local bodies and it was related to conditions set by the Union government to raise loans by the State governments, he said. Mr. Shettar said that although he raised the issue during the Cabinet meeting, it was opposed by the Finance Department. He said that the municipal corporation, meanwhile, had been empowered to reduce the hike by 5 %. The corporation had also been authorised to extend the 5 % rebate on tax remittals till July 31, he said.
Listing out the achievements of the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last one year, Mr. Shettar said that under the leadership of Mr. Modi the country had effectively fought the pandemic.
MLA Shankar Patil Munenakoppa, MLCs Pradeep Shettar and S.V. Sankanur and others were present.
