Industry cries for concrete policy, Govt glorifies it

Sandesh Prabhudesai
22 October 1999 

It is all on the papers to give new life to the dying industrial future of Goa. But sheer lack of political will in implementing a concrete industrial policy for the tiny tourist state appears to be a stumbling block.

Chief minister Luizinho Faleiro assured to come out with a policy within two weeks, but failed to turn up at the seminar convened by the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Industries minister Churchill Alemao, on the other hand, just does not understand such matters.

The state was represented only by industries secretary Rakesh Mehta, who admitted while presenting the draft that the industrial development has come to a standstill because the state did not have a worthwhile concrete policy till date.

The industrial development in the state has however come to a grinding halt for the last two years because the high court has banned new power connection to any new establishments, for lack of power. The government is still unable to tackle effectively the problem of allowing power guzzlers who are stealing power.

In addition, the issue of withdrawal of sales tax exemption with retrospective effect has come as a jolt to all the industries in the state, who claim that they spend a lot on importing the raw material and selling the products outside, as Goa lacks the market.

"Is industry in Goa on its ascent to paradise or is it slipping into a purgatory of sorts ? If paradise it is not going to be, could hell be its ultimate destination", asks Dattaraj Salgaoncar, the GCCI president and a leading mine owner of Goa.

Amidst recession all over, the mining is in crisis, tourism is on decline, infrastructure still not improved and political instability keeps all policies undergoing dramatic changes time and again. In addition, sporadic agitations by enviro-scare mongers send wrong signals throughout the country, feels Salgaoncar.

The environmental groups however feel otherwise. Why the politicians allow pollutant projects to come to Goa when it would affect the tourism, trade as well as the local populace, they ask, while welcoming healthy industrial growth.

Two coastal talukas in South Goa – Salcete and Mormugao – are literally burning today with violent protests by the villagers over an allegedly pollutant Meta Strips project. While the government has now appointed a commission to probe into it, facts have already started coming to light the manipulative manner in which it was allowed.

"We are unnecessarily caught up in the agitation over environmental issues when the project of brass sheets does not even fall in the category of pollutant projects", claims Sushil Khaitan, the CMD of Meta Strips.

Luciano Gilardo, advisor of Teksid Kalyani project of car accessories, holds sheer red tapism responsible for the undue delay of their project. "Besides bureaucratic wrangles, we are still unable to get water and power supply promised to us", he says.

Coca Cola, the soft drink multinational, is also critical about ad-hocism on all fronts of the administration. While complaining about delay in approvals at the stage of commissioning, he however admits that the initial approvals were given speedily, without explaining how they managed it.

While the industry is feeling that the gap between percept and practices is widening day by day, the state is still busy projecting a rosy picture of industrial growth. Though it talks about acquiring over one crore sq mts of land for the new industrial parks, Mehta does not hesitate to admit that half of it would be opposed by the locals.

Besides the old plans of food park, export promotion park, software technology park and the IT habitat, the state government has now proposed to convert all industrial estates into autonomous industrial parks with private participation.

Proposal has also been mooted for the industrial model town with Japanese investment while decision of making Goa a free port is still pending before the central government.

The plans are many, but nothing concrete as yet to overcome the immediate problems industry is confronting. It is thus clear that the future of industry in the near future is bleak as far as Goa is concerned.

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