DF govt unable to meet policy targets: Gadkari

MUMBAI: Maharashtra BJP president Nitin Gadkari has expressed doubts over the ability of the Democratic Front (DF) government to meet projections of the new industrial policy. Mr Gadkari claimed that a “pathetic performance in the power sector” by the DF government for seven years since 1999 would adversely affect all projections of growth in the industrial, manufacturing, agriculture, and service sectors.

“Except for the expansion plans under way at the MSEB’s Khaparkheda, Chandrapur, Parali, and Paras power stations, this government has not added a single megawatt to the state’s power generation capacity in seven years.

Investors are not mad to invest in a state which has earned the infamy of 16-hour load-shedding in rural areas and four hours in urban areas,” Mr Gadkari said. The BJP president said a state with a power shortfall of 4,500 mw to 5,000 mw was “hopelessly incapable” of attracting investments.

Asked the reason why the state had bagged a slew of big-ticket investments in the automobile, retail, and IT sectors recently, Mr Gadkari said merely entering into an MoU did not denote that investments have actually landed. “Even the SEZ boom is restricted to Mumbai and areas around Mumbai. The SEZ developers are not going to industrially backward areas like Vidarbha, Marathwada, and Konkan,” Mr Gadkari pointed out.

He said availability of power, water, transport, and means of communication were the main drivers of economic growth. “Of these four, water, power, and transport come under the state purview.

This government has failed to make quantum contributions to any of these sectors in seven years,” Mr Gadkari said. In the energy sector, the BJP leader said that tall claims of roping in private companies for power generation with investment to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore have been proved hollow.

“More than a year ago, a memorandum of understanding was signed with as many as eight companies for an investment of Rs 13,000 crore in the power generation sector. What has happened to those MoUs?

The government has not made any progress on land acquisition, getting necessary clearances, signing power purchase agreements, and ensuring that these companies achieve financial closures,” Mr Gadkari claimed.

The BJP leader said the RBI bulletin for ’05 which places Maharashtra ahead of all states in getting investments did not tell the real story about the state. “Per capita income, GDP, and growth rate of the economy are the real indicators of growth. The state has not achieved a substantial growth on any of these parameters in the last seven years,” Mr Gadkari said.