While the State and Union governments were making tall claims about ease of doing business, small and medium enterprises have been left out and, despite being in power, the BJP has failed to address the problems of small entrepreneurs and industrialists, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said.
Addressing presspersons here on Monday, president of the Dharwad district unit of AAP Santosh Naragund, district executive committee member Vikas Soppin and other office-bearers said that while sops were being announced for bigger companies, the basic requirements of small industrialists in the industrial estates were being neglected. “It is ‘cease of doing business’ for the smaller and first generation entrepreneurs,” Mr. Naragund said.
He said that while it was natural to see revision to an extent of 10 % to 15 % on the price of industrial plots in industrial estates, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), which functioned directly under Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar, had issued notices increasing land cost by over ₹ 30 lakh to ₹ 38 lakh per acre of industrial land at Gamanagatti Industrial Area in Hubballi.
“Being a government agency, KIADB should at least have an estimate while taking up development of industrial areas. While one could understand an increase in the final cost of industrial plots, KIADB suddenly increased land price for plots allotted almost eight years ago,” he said.
“The single window system, as claimed by the government, is non-existent for MSMEs,” he said.
Mr. Soppin said that the way the land price had been revised gave room for suspicion that the authorities were trying to help real estate mafia. “Otherwise, there is no logic in the way prices have been revised,” he said.
