Guwahati: Former Assam industry minister and PCC vice- president Pradyut Bordoloi on Friday said the North East Industrial Development Scheme, which was formulated by the BJP after replacing the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), is a "cruel joke" on the Northeast.
"The BJP-led government has downgraded the policy by making it into a scheme. In NEIDS, a business house will only get Rs 200 crore of maximum subsidies from the government. It had already made a number of industrialists unhappy. Such schemes cannot create a unique selling proposition in the region and ultimately no one will come here to set up industry," he said.
Under the North East Industrial Development Scheme, 2017, the overall cap for benefits under all components of incentives will be of Rs 200 crore per unit.
The first industrial policy for the Northeast was formulated during the H.D. Deve Gowda government's tenure when LG set up a unit at Amingaon in Kamrup district. But the Vajpayee government later withdrew it and LG shut down the unit. More such examples will be repeated in Assam now, Bordoloi said.
"On Thursday I discussed the new scheme with Sun Pharma officials over phone. During the conversation they also expressed unhappiness over the new scheme.".
The former industry minister said there was scope of corruption in the earlier policy. "But one should not withdraw a policy due to allegations of corruption. Rather, the government should have taken measures to stem the corruption. But they did not do it. The new scheme is just a lollipop for us and nothing else. From 2005 to 2016 there were five lakh jobs generated in the joint and private sectors. But as far as I know there has been no more employment generation after that," Bordoloi said.
"The new scheme completely ignored the service sector unlike the earlier edition of the NEIIPP. We wanted to be armed with an USP for the region so that it attracts enhanced investment from the mainland and beyond. The policy was formulated with a provision for extension but the scheme has no such provision," he added.
AICC move: Senior Congress leader and former minister Hemaprova Saikia resigned from the AICC steering committee to make room for new faces.
AICC president Rahul Gandhi last month had dissolved the party's highest decision-making body, Central Working Committee (CWC), and constituted the 34-member steering committee for the party's recently-held party's 84th plenary session. She was the only member from Assam in the committee.
In the letter to Rahul Gandhi, Saikia said she had been a part of the steering committee for long. "However, it is a universal law that the old must make way for the new when the proper time comes. I, therefore, tender my resignation as a member of the steering committee in order to make room for induction of younger leaders," the letter said.
Additional reporting by Rajiv Konwar
