Highlight
- Sharad Pawar says Vedanta-Foxconn plant should not have moved out of Maharashtra
- There is no longer any hope that the big-ticket project will return to the state, he added.
- The plant will now be set up in Gujarat and not in Maharashtra as proposed earlier
Vedanta-Foxconn PlantNationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant should not have moved out of Maharashtra, but now the big ticket project has no chance of coming back to the state after being picked up by the joint venture company. did not expect. for Gujarat.
Opposition parties have tried to corner the Eknath Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government after it announced two days ago that the Rs 1.54 lakh crore semiconductor plant would be set up in neighboring Gujarat and not in Maharashtra as proposed earlier.
Addressing a press conference, Pawar said the Centre’s assurance to Maharashtra that it will get a bigger project than the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant is tantamount to trying to “convince a child”. He said the mega project was originally envisaged to come up at Talegaon near Pune city which already has an automobile hub near Chakan.
The former Union minister said it would have been good for the company (Vedanta-Foxconn) had the plant been set up in Talegaon.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Congress also alleged that the Vedanta-Foxconn project has been shifted to Gujarat under pressure from the central government, while the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government offered the company a better package to set up the plant. Had it.
State Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant claimed in a statement that the project has been shifted to Gujarat’s Dholera, though it is an “inconvenient” place compared to Talegaon near Pune, where it was earlier planned to be set up. The country will suffer as the project is likely to come to a standstill.
A blame game has started in Maharashtra after it was announced two days ago that a joint venture semiconductor project of Indian conglomerate Vedanta and Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, which was earlier proposed to be set up near Pune, would come up in Gujarat.
“Even as the previous MVA government offered a better package than Gujarat, the Vedanta Foxconn project has gone to Dholera under pressure from the central government. Since Dholera is an inconvenient place, several companies, including ISMC Digital, which Vedanta-Foxconn have decided to step out of the same space as manufacturing semiconductors.
Sawant alleged that shifting of the Vedanta-Foxconn Semiconductor project to Dholera would not only harm Maharashtra but the country as well.
The Congress leader claimed that as per the internal report of Vedanta company, Talegaon in Maharashtra is the suitable location for this semiconductor project.
A comparative study of both Talegaon and Dholera was done, and Dholera was given low preference citing various reasons such as lack of water supply, skilled labour, electronics manufacturing ecosystem, absence of supply chain vendors and secondary manufacturers, and marshy land. had gone, he said.
“Even though Maharashtra had offered several concessions, including higher capital subsidy, than Gujarat, the decision to shift the project to Dholera has been taken only under pressure from the central government,” Sawant alleged.
He claimed that when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had announced several non-viable projects in his state and had wasted thousands of crores of rupees from taxpayers’ money.
“Recently, three companies had applied when a proposal was invited for manufacturing semiconductors in the country with an estimated investment of USD 10 billion. One of them, ISMC Digital, was about to come up in Dholera. But this company What has run away from Dholera is the lack of facilities and availability of water. Interestingly, the Gujarat government had entered into an MoU with this company,” Sawant said.
According to him, JioPhone, a joint project of Google and Reliance, left Dholera and moved to Tirupati. Prior to this, Lockheed Martin Corporation withdrew from the solar battery project. Hindustan Construction Company had entered into a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a waterfront city worth Rs 40,000 crore at Dholera.
But took it back after paying some money for the place.
Attacking the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government for losing the project, Sawant said it would have provided employment to the people of Maharashtra and income to the country.
“Now there is a possibility that the project will be stalled for a long time due to the obstinate attitude of the central government. Like Dholera, the GIFT City project (in Gujarat) was also stalled. The International Financial Services Centre, which was to come to power when the Modi government came to power It was Maharashtra that was taken there. The financial center would have brought a huge investment in Maharashtra, which would have benefitted everyone. But the central government did not allow this to happen,” the Congress leader alleged.
When Modi was the chief minister, his government forced the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation to take bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore, pretending it had found gas reserves. Eventually no gas was found and the company went into debt. He said that the Modi government forced Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to buy GSPC.
“PM Modi has claimed that he has promised Maharashtra a big project from Foxconn, but the state does not need his grace for such a big project,” Sawant said.
Sawant said, “Maharashtra has always been number one in the field of industry on its own merits. It is unfortunate that BJP leaders are weakening the state to fulfill Modi’s dream of making Gujarat a success by snatching projects from Maharashtra.” are.”
,With inputs from PTI,
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