PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Tuesday said the State government’s plans to conduct the second Global Investors’ Meet in January 2019 should not result in wastage of tax payers’ money as the earlier GIM had not yielded the desired results. In a statement, Mr. Ramadoss said only 5.34% of the investments that were promised during the previous GIM had been realised; investments amounting to nearly ₹19,000 crore had been stuck due to various issues including land availability and acquisition.
“Hence, only a total of ₹13,000 crore has been invested so far. Also, many firms that had promised investments to the tune of ₹1.07 lakh crore in the electricity sector have given up their plans,” he said.
The PMK leader said these were enough to prove that the GIM was a failure. Despite claims by the government that ₹100 crore would be spent to conduct the meet in 2015, the government ended up spending ₹300 crore more.
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Mr. Ramadoss added that the Andhra Pradesh government, which had conducted a similar meet, had been assured of investments of ₹10 lakh crore. “Of this, 60% has already been invested and lakhs of people have got jobs,” he said, adding that the Tamil Nadu government must improve infrastructure.