Investor Meet an extravagant exercise, unlikely to succeed: Cong

ibune News Service

Dharamsala, October 13

With the Chief Minister trying to list the forthcoming Global Investors Meet as an achievement during the Dharamsala byelection, the Congress today termed it as extravagant exercise. The state government has scheduled Investors Meet at Dharamsala on November 8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the event.

CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri, in a press release issued here today, said that effort of the state government in attracting investment to boost development was normally seen as positive initiative but the proposed Global Investor Meet 2019 (GIM) appeared to be an extravagant exercise and was not likely to yield any concrete results. It would be more appropriate to term it as “Global MoU Signing Festival” rather than a serious Investors Meet.

Signing MoUs can help create media headlines but it does not actually bring investment as has been the case in other states where not even 25 per cent of the MoUs have been implemented during the period of economic boom. The media hype over the Investors Meet for the past almost one year seems more a ploy to divert attention away from the lacklustre performance of the state government over the past 21 months, he said.

Agnihotri further said that entire focus was on publicity and there was no concern about rules, regulations, environment and rights of the people which raised serious doubts about the meet. It may turn out to be another edition of “Himachal on Sale” if one goes by the way government is easing norms in a vague manner.

He further said that the provisions for NOC from panchayats and mandatory permissions from the TCP Department had been waived implying thereby that there will be no public consultations. It will be a free for all like situation where any influential person can set up any project anywhere, bypassing mandatory provisions of law.

The government has not learnt any lesson from the Himalayan Ski Village Project which could not be implemented due to opposition from local people. Such an approach will lead to turmoil. This only portrays non-seriousness of the government to attract investors, Agnihotri said.

The Congress demanded that the government should come out with a White Paper and put in black and white all the incentives, concessions and relaxations announced for various sectors and specific industries before the meet. Agnihotri said that tourism and highly polluting cement plants, which are also being opposed by local people, cannot go together. The government is promoting both which means it has no priorities.

The meet is being organised at a time when the country’s economy has hit a nadir and industries across sectors, from consumer goods to automobiles are shutting down. The gravity of situation can be judged from the fact that the unemployment rate is at a 45-year high.