Maharashtra News: White Paper On Projects Lost by State Tabled In Assembly

The Maha Yuti government in Maharashtra on Thursday tabled a white paper before the state legislature on industries moving out of Maharashtra. The paper tries to absolve the present dispensation of any blame for the exit of industries while trying to prove how the former MVA dispensation was responsible for that.

While listing the facts about four major projects – Vedanta Foxconn, Tata Airbus, Saffron, and the Bulk Drug Park project – that went to neighboring states, the white paper tried to reiterate the state government’s stand that the projects weren’t lost due to mistakes of the Maha Yuti government, but that was the effect of the delay in the decision-making process of the MVA government.

‘Projects not seen from an investment point of view’

The whitepaper said that the Tata Airbus project and the Saffron project were not being seen from the investment point of view while it blamed the high power committee of the previous government for not making decisions regarding concessions to be given to the Vedanta Foxconn project. The state government said that the Bulk Drug Project will now be a self-funded project of the state government.  The high-powered committee of the MVA government didn’t make any decision regarding concessions to the Vedanta Foxconn project in its meeting on March 17, 2022, while the Shinde-Fadnavis government in its meeting on July 15, 2022, offered several concessions including tax rebate, and then invited the Vedanta group twice for the signing of MOC. However, since the MOU was never signed, it would be
wrong to say that the project went out of the state, the whitepaper said. The whitepaper also said that in the case of the Tata Airbus company, they had not signed an MOU with the MIDC or had moved an application demanding any land. The industries department had not even had any correspondence with the company. Hence, the allegations that the state has lost the project too are wrong, the industries department has said.

In the case of the Saffron project, the company had not moved any application seeking land with the MIDC or not even had any discussions or correspondence. Hence, it would be wrong to say that the project went out of the state, the white paper said. On July 5, 2022, after he met with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi, the CEO of the company Olivier Andriès announced in Delhi itself that the company would be setting up its facilities in Hyderabad. The MIDC had not discussed the project with the company or the defense ministry. Hence, it would be wrong to say that the state lost the project, the white paper argued.