By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Describing the deal between the state government and Tata Motors to set up Nano small car plant as a “sell-out”, the Gujarat Congress has said the government is giving huge incentives to the Tatas while thousands of closed industrial units are not getting any help to revive operations.
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Siddharth Patel said the government, which has offered huge cash incentives to the Tata Group, has done nothing to revive nearly 80,000 closed industrial units in the state.
According to him, if the closed units restarted operations, it would restore nearly 100,000 jobs.
“Tatas are welcome to set up as many as five such projects. But investments for their projects have to come from Tatas’ own resources and not from people of Gujarat,” Patel said.
State Congress leaders said cash incentives offered by the government to the auto major was against the decision taken by the state finance ministers’ conclave in 2001. The meeting decided that governments should not offer cash incentives to attract industrial investments.
Earlier, there were reports that Tata Motors would get benefits worth Rs.95 billion from the state government for developing infrastructure around the Nano project site in Sanand near Ahmedabad.
The government officials IANS spoke to confirmed the deal and said the incentives were being provided to attract more investors to the state at a time when the global economic slowdown has hit growth prospects.