HYDERABAD: It seems that the process of attracting huge investments and big industries to the state has gradually come down after with the initial pomp and show.After the hullabaloo for the first year and a half about attracting investments and disbursing permit letters to new industries, there has been a lull for almost a year now.
The last time that the industries department conducted a function for disbursing permit letters to new industries was in June last year. That was the seventh phase of TS-iPASS, the new industrial policy of the state government. Since then no major investment.
Though official sources in the industries department claimed that, though they were not conducing functions for disbursement of permit letters, permits were given to new industries. “Industrialists themselves are downloading the letters individually,” an official claimed.
We used to get 175 applications for new industries every month in the past. Now, we are getting 300 applications a month, an industries department official claimed. Though the state shares top position in the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) along with Andhra Pradesh, no major industry has come forward to set up shop in Telangana. The EoDB ranking has not translated into any major investment in the recent past.
Dearth of officers blamed
The main reason is said to be that the vigorous promotion of the state outside the country has slowed down. The industries department has no regular secretary after Arvind Kumar was transferred to Delhi as resident commissioner.
“As there is a shortage of IAS officers, each officer is holding two or three key posts,” a senior official in the Chief Minister’s Office admitted. But, sources are optimistic that the state may rope in huge investments during the ongoing visit of industries and IT minister KT Rama Rao to the USA.
Textile park clearance in June
Officials are now focusing their attention on attracting large investments to the proposed textile park in Warangal. “We have received several offer letters. We expect that the environmental clearance for the textile park will be issued in June. Thereafter, we will start allotting plots to industrialists in the textiles park,” well-placed sources said