Patna, April 1: Going by the past six years’ track record of the Bihar government and the problems the prospective investors are facing, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has expressed doubts on the possibility of attracting approximately Rs 20,000 crore private investment in the food processing and allied sectors as envisaged in the agriculture roadmap.
The agriculture roadmap of the state government talks of ushering in a rainbow revolution in Bihar by improving the condition of agriculture and its allied sectors. The government has chalked out a plan of attracting about Rs 1,50,000 crore investment in this sector between 2012 and 2017. Of this, the government has projected a private investment of Rs 19,590 crore in the food processing and its allied sectors.
The CII national council member, Satyajit Kumar, has written a letter to chief minister Nitish Kumar drawing his attention towards these points.
“The actual investment from 2006 to 2011 in food processing is approximately Rs 750 crore with a grant disbursement of approximately Rs 100 crore. The experience of investors in Bihar from 2006 to 2008 in food processing is not encouraging,” reads the letter.
According to the state government’s policy, those investing in the food processing sector are supposed to be reimbursed 35 per cent of their investment by the state government with the upper limit being Rs 5 crore for a project, Kumar said. “Going by the investment figures between 2006 and 2011, the reimbursement should have been over Rs 150 crore, whereas the government has released just about Rs 100 crore, which shows that the reimbursement process is not smooth,” said the CII office-bearer.
Kumar said 13 projects involving investment of about Rs 18 crore came in the food processing sector between 2006 and 2008, but the state government refused to reimburse the subsidy to those investors. It claimed that though it announced the policy in April 2007, the detailed norms were formulated in December 2008 and only those who invested after that could claim the reimbursement.
“How can the government expect investors to come to this state when it takes such a stand?” asked Kumar.
The letter has also drawn the chief minister’s attention towards the failure of the state government to give possession of land allotted to Keventer group at Kahalgaon near Bhagalpur for setting up the mega food park though Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (Biada) allotted the land around a year ago and Keventer group had paid about Rs 4 crore against the allotment.
“We tried to take possession of the land around seven months ago but people resisted. Finally, a meeting was convened in February this year to resolve the issue. Representatives of the prospective investors, Biada and the local administration took part in it. We had urged the local administration to give us the possession of the land by March-end but so far we have not heard anything,” Keventer group CEO Abinash Gupta told The Telegraph over phone from Calcutta on Sunday.
He said the company was finding it tough to explain the developments of the project in review meetings convened by the Centre.
Industries department principal secretary C.K. Mishra said as far as reimbursing subsidies to the prospective investors was concerned, the state government was adhering to the rules and reimbursement was being made to the deserving firms.
Regarding the Mega Food Park project, Mishra, who also happens to be the chairman of Biada, said: “Technically speaking, Biada has handed over the land to the investor and it is also in constant touch with the Bhagalpur administration so that the investor could get the possession of the land. The administration has assured us of sorting out the issue soon.”
Kahalgaon sub-divisional officer Sanjay Singh echoed Mishra and said confusions were being sorted out for smooth handover of the land to the investor.
