Madhya Pradesh claims major investment after CM’s Davos visit, BJP dubs it lip service
The Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has claimed it is expecting an investment of more than Rs 4000 crore after chief minister Kamal Nath’s meeting with some of the corporate leaders from around the world during his ongoing visit to Davos.
A government spokesperson said Kamal Nath met various leading industrialists, including the chairperson of MKS Company Marwan Shakarchi and president and chief executive officer of Novo Nordisk, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, and several others on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
He also met the managing director of Mahindra Group Pawan Goenka and Rahul Bajaj and Sanjeev Bajaj of Bajaj Group.
“Due to its central location in India, an ideal situation exists in the state for pharmaceutical units. Being at the centre, 50% of the country’s population is connected to Madhya Pradesh through road and other means of transport,” Kamal Nath said during his meeting with the industrialists.
The chief minister also said given the state’s geographical location “the state would soon emerge as India’s warehousing hub”.
The government said that during his meeting with Kamal Nath, vice-president of Amazon Web Services Max Peterson said the company wished to start its business in Madhya Pradesh as well while operating at six places in the country – New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Chennai.
Empty talk
The BJP’s Madhya Pradesh unit vice-president Vijesh Lunawat said the state government is offering lip service.
“No one else other than chief minister Kamal Nath himself admitted in the state assembly in reply to a question in December last year, that number of educated unemployed youth registered had grown by as many as seven lakh while merely 34,000 got jobs in the year,” Lunawat said.
“What discourages the industrialists from coming to the state is another industry i.e. transfer and posting industry that is running in full swing under the Kamal Nath government for obvious reasons. There is a chaotic situation in the state secretariat and the CM doesn’t enjoy his control over bureaucrats,” he added.
In October last year, the Kamal Nath-led government held its first investors’ meet in Indore while underlining the fact it would not go for a MoUs signing spree like the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government but showcase the state’s potential to the investors.
The government claimed that there was an investment of Rs 32,500 crore in all the industries in 2019 and that it created opportunities for as many as 109,210 jobs.
The Congress leaders accused the then BJP government headed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan of indulging in extravaganza having spent crores of rupees on the global investors meets but getting nothing significant in return.
[“source=hindustantimes”]
