Unestablished Industrial Units Will Lose Lands

Speaking during the Telangana Assembly session, Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao said that the Telangana government would take back lands allotted to industries if the managements failed to establish units within the stipulated time. However the State government would extend loans up to Rs. 5 lakhs with 3% interest rate for different units as incentives. The government would also extend support in the form of marketing and co-branding initiatives, he added.

Citing an example of a company at Kallakal village in Toopran mandal, the Minister told the Assembly that the government had taken back 125 acres out of the 225 acres allotted to the company for failing to establish required number of units.

Replying to a question on the proposed Industrial Health Clinic (IHC) policy, Rao said that the State government was committed to support and revive micro, small and medium scale industries. And a corpus fund of Rs. 100 crores was already planned for the purpose, out of which, 50% would be funded by the Central government and the rest needed to be generated by the State through various means, he explained.

The IHC would be established as a non-banking financial institution with a CEO heading the organization. "When the plan was presented before Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra, he welcomed it and said it would be a pilot model in the country," the IT minister added. Stressing on the importance of the MSME sector, he said that there was a need to protect the sector as it generated 70 - 75 % of employment in the nation.

He pointed out that Telangana banks were not extending enough support to MSMEs, especially in loan recovery. A techno-economic viability study was needed before declaring a unit as sick. But most banks were doing the opposite. The issue was taken up during the State-Level Bankers' Committee meeting recently, he informed.