BENGALURU: Industries facing issues with clearances and other hurdles will soon be able to take their grievances directly to the office of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy as he will depute an officer to interact with companies and clear pending issues without the company representatives having to run from department to department.
Kumaraswamy made this assurance at a breakfast meeting he held with the top officials of companies from the state on Friday ahead of the announcement of the upcoming Bengaluru Tech Summit. In what was termed as a "frank discussion," the CM also urged companies to look beyond Bengaluru for expansion and for setting up of new companies. He promised support from the government in the form of financial assistance and said he planned on allocating more than `2,000 crore in next year's budget to assist companies looking to invest in Tier-2 cities.
"For skill development, we are ready with the Karnataka Innovation Authority Bill and will introduce it in the next Assembly session. "If you get involved with Tier-2 cities, it will help you and also generate jobs for the youth there. Bengaluru has reached a saturation point according to me," he told the gathering of corporates.
Addressing the city's infrastructure woes, Kumaraswamy said that he understood the problems that industry was facing because of the city's "notorious traffic." "We had planned an elevated inner core ring road and the project report was ready during the previous government's time, but some people said it is not a good solution and are suggesting mass rapid transport. It is my personal request, everyone can give free advice, but how does one solve this problem? You people travel all over the world and you know better, I request you to give advice on the solution and we are ready to implement it," he said.