Where have industrial townships gone?

MUMBAI: Even as the Maharashtra government begins marketing special economic zones, its scheme to set up industrial townships is stuck somewhere in the middle. It has now been hanging fire for 12 years.

The state government passed the Maharashtra Townships Act in December 1994 to set up autonomous industrial townships across the state. The move was aimed at pulling in more investments and making cities other than Mumbai and Pune attractive business destinations.

The proposed townships would for 10 years pay a revenue equivalent to 50% of the average revenue collected by the local municipal body, during the three years preceding the year of formation of that township. This was to make up for any financial loss the municipalities would incur in the whole process.

Efforts to prevent the Act from becoming a reality began, soon after it received the governor’s accent in December 1994. However, the ball was set rolling when the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) recommended setting up of Trans-Thane Creek (TTC) Industrial Area, one of the oldest in the state. The government also initiated a process to convert another 12 industrial estates into townships.

Things have not moved much ever since. “Local politics has ensured no township comes up in the state,” an industry ministry official lamented. “Pressure from local political lobbies and the inability of successive governments’ to overcome it, have defeated the purpose of the Act.”

More than the delay, the officials are worried about one clause quietly introduced in the Act by the government despite being cleared by the governor. It’s now mandatory for industrial bodies to receive ‘unconditional recommendation of local self-government authority’ before going for such townships.

“Industrial townships will be established in 66 industrial areas of MIDC only if the local self-government authority concerned gives its unconditional recommendation for such a move.

In rural areas, the recommendations of the Gram Sabha are necessary,” the government resolution that was brought in later notes. Simply put, the municipal bodies are expected to give their NoCs for the proposed townships. “This is absurd. No local self-government would give this kind of NoC for obvious reasons,” an official said.

Disillusioned by the state’s response on this front, a number of industry associations have taken up the matter with Prime Minister’s office. “The lack of will has resulted in dual authority and a neglect of infrastructure in these areas.

This has in most places led to bad roads, poor street lighting, poor upkeep of drainage and sanitation,” Small Scale Entrepreneurs Association of the TTC said in a memorandum submitted to the PMO. This has also resulted in the proliferation of slums in industrial areas.

For those businessmen who have units in these localities, they are the milch cows for municipal corporations. “The facilities are poor and the voice of the industrialists is not heard because they are not vote banks,” reasons one of them.