No new industrial units set up in state since April

Despite tall claims about heavy investments in Haryana by the government, the office of the Director-General, Industries and Commerce, has revealed that not a single large or medium industrial unit has been set up in Haryana in the last six months, leading to nil fresh employment.

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Despite tall claims about heavy investments in Haryana by the government, the office of the Director-General, Industries and Commerce, has revealed that not a single large or medium industrial unit has been set up in Haryana in the last six months, leading to nil fresh employment. The statistics for the preceding two financial years are equally dismal with only three large or medium units coming into being during 2015-16 and 15 in 2014-15.

Equally disturbing is the fact that the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, the apex body promoting industrial climate in the state, has recruited only two persons during the tenure of the current BJP Government that will complete two years in October. The information on investment and employment has been supplied by the government in response to an RTI query.

The state government has claimed that following various MoUs during the “Happening Haryana” summit held at Gurgaon in March, 109 projects worth potential investments of Rs 69713.12 crore have so far landed in the state. This fact has been belied by the response of the State Public Information Officer, who has given details of large and medium units set up in Haryana since 2005-2006.

The government has claimed that the construction of 13 projects with an investment of Rs 281.71 crore has already started but the RTI reply does not reflect this to be true. The state claims to have allotted land for 96 projects none of which is reflected in the status given by the Industries Department.

As per the response supplied in reply to an RTI query between 2005 and 2014 (read Congress rule under Bhupinder Singh Hooda as Chief Minister), Haryana received a total investment of Rs 25,816 crore used to set up 407 new large or medium industries. These units provided employment to 1,15,888 persons. On the other hand, Haryana received only 15 new units (some sanctioned during the Congress regime) during BJP rule (2014-15) with an investment of Rs 175 crore, giving employment to 2,647 persons.

Only three new units involving an investment of Rs 495 crore were put up during 2015-16 which provided employment to 376 persons. During the last six months since April , no new unit has been put up and not a single person has been provided employment.

Official figures released after the “Happening Haryana Summit” on March 7 and 8, the government had claimed that 359 MoUs worth a potential investment of Rs 5.84 lakh crore were signed. Subsequently, the government added that 47 more MoUs were signed making it 406 MOUs worth Rs 6.41 lakh crore.

Sources in the government said that a majority of the investors in Happening Haryana Summit comprised land developers and realtors and not large and medium industrial units. The developers are mostly concentrated in the Bawal and Faridabad areas. Though they have promised to bring in heavy investments and generate large employment, there is a doubt about these developers fulfilling their promise on account of continued weakness in the realty sector.