Chandigarh: Industrialists from Punjab are looking to invest in Uttar Pradesh, citing the “deteriorating law and order situation” in the border state, chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s “lack of interest” and a “better industrial policy” in UP.
More than 50 industrialists, mostly from Punjab, met UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his industry teams Wednesday and committed investment of at least Rs 5 lakh crore in the state. This comes at a time when Mann is on a tour to south India seeking investment in his own state.
A press statement issued by Adityanath’s office Wednesday evening stated that a meeting of industrialists had been organised by the Atal Purvanchal Industrial Development Council. During the meeting, Punjab’s Avon Group proposed investment of Rs 500 crore in UP, while Hero Group from the state proposed an investment of Rs 350 crore.
T.R. Misra, who has boiler industries in Ludhiana and is the chairman of the Atal Purvanchal Industrial Development Council, had led the delegation of industrialists to UP.
Talking to ThePrint, Misra said that more than 50 industrialists from the council had decided to invest in UP, and the majority of them were from Punjab.
“We have already committed an investment of Rs 2.26 lakh crore. By 31 March, 2023, we are committed to invest a total of Rs 5 lakh crore in UP,” said Misra, adding that he would himself invest Rs 30 crore in a boiler unit in Kanpur.
Opposition parties are now training their guns at Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, which came to power earlier this year, wresting the state from the Congress.
Leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, tweeted a report about the meeting in a leading Punjabi daily, saying: “Badlav (change) has arrived!!!”
Punjab’s former deputy chief minister and senior Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa tweeted that the industrialists planned to shift their installations to UP because of the “worsening law & order situation in Punjab.”
If this doesn’t awaken @BhagwantMann from his slumber what else’s will?
Ludhiana industrialists had a meeting with UP CM @myogiadityanath as they are planning to shift their installations due to worsening law & order situation in Punjab.
Rangla Punjab or Berang Punjab?
— Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa (@Sukhjinder_INC) December 22, 2022
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal also tweeted a report of the meeting between Punjab industrialists and Adityanath, saying that while earlier industries shifted from UP to Punjab because of “lawlessness and rule of gangsters”, now the opposite was happening. This would result in “loss of revenue and jobs,” he added, urging Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to “wake up… before it’s too late”.
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‘UP CM had info on fingertips’
Misra cited several reasons why he and other entrepreneurs from Punjab had decided to expand their businesses not in Punjab but in UP.
“One of the first reasons is that Uttar Pradesh has the best industrial policy in the country right now in terms of subsidies and other facilities to industries,” he said, adding that “we are also impressed with the manner in which the entire industry investment team is prepared in UP”.
Talking about the meeting with the UP chief minister, he said: “He (Adityanath) had every bit of information about the state on his fingertips. He answered all our questions knowledgeably. However, here when we hold a meeting with the CM (Mann), there are 20 officers accompanying him and he constantly directs them to answer our queries. It makes us feel he has no interest in the work.”
Misra went on to say that the law-and-order situation in Punjab was also a major cause of worry for industrialists.
“It almost seems as if we are back in the mid-80s (period of insurgency) in Punjab. We are feeling insecure about the atmosphere that is being created. There is no control on crime. Our labourers are looted almost every day; their cycles, motorcycles and mobile phones are snatched and the government seems to have closed its eyes to all this,” he alleged.
Misra further said that even though “the AAP government claims to be honest”, he knew of “officers who had been accused of serious corruption and yet had been posted at top positions”.
‘Industrialists fleeing Punjab’
BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa also blamed the “worsening law and order situation” in Punjab for pushing the industry out. Taking a dig at CM Mann on Twitter, he wrote that the AAP’s Delhi model first “ruined” the national capital and now it was “Punjab’s turn”. He too pointed to the “worsening” law and order in the state.
Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira said that while Punjab industrialists had confirmed they would invest Rs 2.3 lakh crore in UP, there was no information on whether Bhagwant Mann had managed to draw any investors during his south India tour.
Addressing CM Mann, senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia tweeted: “As you roam around soliciting investment, your own home-grown industrialists are fleeing Punjab because YOU failed them. Industrialists in Pb fed up by kidnappings & extortions & have lost faith in your govt.”
CM Mann has, meanwhile, been holding back-to-back meetings with business tycoons in Chennai and Hyderabad for the past two days, inviting them to invest in his state. The Punjab government claims that the state has developed as a top-ranking industrial hub in India.
In a press statement issued by the state government Monday, Mann said Punjab had received proposals for investment of about Rs 27,000 crore in the last nine months (since the AAP came to power in the state), which had the potential of generating employment for 1.25 lakh people.
The Punjab CM also invited industrialists to attend the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit scheduled for 23-24 February next year.
Before this, the Global Investor Summit is being organised in Uttar Pradesh from 10-12 February in Lucknow.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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