Jajpur/Kalinganagar: Call it shortage of encouragement or lack of foresight from state government, various industrial firms are keeping away from establishing plants in Kalinganagar of Jajpur district despite abundance of opportunities, a report said Monday.
As a result, the aim of the state government to provide employment opportunities to the educated youths and creating self-sufficiency has been adversely affected.
Several youths after undergoing technical training are sitting idle at home due to lack of employment opportunities.
The matter came to the fore after the Orissa Industrial Development Corporation (Idco) cancelled the lease of 12.50 acre land in Kalinganagar Industrial Complex allotted to AVH Pvt Ltd, a coal-tar oil company in Mumbai August 5.
The lease was cancelled as the company failed to deposit Rs 1.25 crore towards the cost of the land allotted to it for establishment of its oil plant, reports said. The firm had applied for land to establish a plant for manufacturing of ferro-coal tar pitch (binder graded) , coal tar pitch (hard medium), coal tar oil napthelene, cresot oil (heavy) cresot oil (light ) for which Idco had allotted 12.50 acre land.
However, the firm showed no interest in establishing the plant and even did not deposit Rs 1.25 crore towards land rent. The Idco authorities tried to draw the attention of the company’s director and even issued show cause notices to the firm several times.
The chief general manager (land) Susant Kumar Mohanty in a letter (15511, dated-August 5, 2017) finally cancelled the land lease to the firm after it failed to reply to the former’s notice. It is alleged that the company did not set up the plant due to lack of sponsorship from the state government.
This apart, several other industries such as Newzen Tubes, BMW, Maharashtra Seamless, hotels and modern brick kilns are turning away from establishing their plants in the industrial complex.
Sources said over 27 minor, small and medium industries and two large industries have applied for reimbursement, capital investment and waiver of interest since 2010. However, on the basis of the industrial policy, the state government has provided incentives only to 14 industries while it has cancelled the applications of 13 firms, sources from district industries centre said.
The industries whose applications were cancelled are Sabitri Industries, Magma Foods, Dhabaleshwar Engineering, KRL Industries, Eastern Garments, Tapon Garments, Netramani Fabrications and Raja Enterprises.
It is alleged that due to various irregularities by the industries department in providing incentives to the industrial firms, they are shying away from establishing plants in the region. The allegations were even raised by MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain as a question (UD-1059) in the state Assembly. PNN
