Telangana: AP govt assures protection to industry interests

Seeking to allay apprehensions of the industry in the wake of the decision to carve Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh, the state government today assured protection to business interests.
Major Industries Minister J Geeta Reddy held a meeting with the representatives of CII, FICCI and FAPCCI here today and assured them that the concerns of the industry would be addressed and there was no room for any apprehension.
"The industry had certain problems, concerns, apprehensions and misgivings. Today, we had a preliminary meeting wherein we tried to address them," the Minister said.
Sharing of power, water, security of businesses and employees, fate of memoranda of understanding related to various projects, were some of the "concerns" raised by the industry, Geeta Reddy told reporters after the meeting.

"We are yet to get clarity from the Union Government on the division. The Centre will constitute a committee of experts to decide issues like sharing of power, water and other resources. We will then give more clarity to the industry," the Minister said.
"There will not be any deviation from the industry-friendly policies of the government. We will continue to offer the same investor-oriented administration in future, if not better.

"All incentives, benefits and facilities offered previously by way of Government Orders and MoUs will remain valid regardless of where the investment is located," Geeta Reddy added.
Noting that the role of industry was the key to address the unemployment problem, the Minister said it would be the responsibility of the government to encourage the manufacturing sector to provide jobs to skilled and unskilled manpower.

Referring to the power crisis, the Minister said that industries were currently getting 100 per cent supply though occasionally there could be a problem.
She said an inland container depot for bulk drugs would be built in Telangana since the region did not have a port.
Terming the meeting as "encouraging", CII AP president Ashok Reddy said everything would continue as usual.
"CII always works with the government for better results. We will support the government in developing industry even after the (proposed) division of the state. As per our projection, 35 million jobs will be created in the state by the year 2020," Ashok said.

He, however, said that the uncertain climate over the state's future, particularly Hyderabad, still prevailed.
"There is ambiguity over Hyderabad city. We want the uncertainty cleared," he added.
Former CII president Y Harishchandra Prasad said the meeting was the "first step" towards assuring the industry and "we are quite satisfied" with it.