Chief guest at GIM-2012 N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus of Infosys Technologies said that no investor would evince interest in the state if the basic infrastructure was not provided. One of the oldest investors S R Jindal from Jindal Aluminum said, “The single window system in the state had many backdoors and ventilators.” Jindal, who has already started the Phase I of his Rs 2,000 crore investment in aluminium and foils said that the attitude of bureaucrats had restricted the growth of industry in the state.Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, however stressed that Karnataka was still the best destination for investors.
Reiterating that nearly 31 projects of the 389 MoUs signed in GIM-2010 had been realised, Gowda added that this had amounted to Rs 4,300 crores of investments in the state. According to him, 289 projects were in various stages of implementation.
He said that the state will attract over Rs 5 lakh crore investments,create over 10 lakh jobs and also double the state’s GDP by 2020. Jindal, however, told Express that all assurances were only on paper. “The State High Powered Committee said that 70 acres in Dobbspet be allotted to us by the KIADB. But we have not been given possession of land. Rampant corruption has prevented the state from achieving high industrial growth,” he lamented. He also alleged that the KIADB had asked them to pay Rs 42 lakh per acre.