CM warms to industry

VADODARA, Feb 18: Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel today offered to set up a panel to deal exclusively with the problems faced by industria...

VADODARA, Feb 18: Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel today offered to set up a panel to deal exclusively with the problems faced by industrialists of the Vadodara region.

Delivering the inaugural address at VCCI ’99, the fourth national industrial exhibition and catalogue show, at the sprawling Laxmi Vilas Palace grounds here, he lauded the organisers for the effort put into the show and reiterated that the State was eager to help Gujarat industrialists grow like never before.

“It is only today that I’m being told Vadodara-based industrialists have no access to technological facilities like the Internet. But it is ironical that I was told this by an advertising company executive, not an industrialist or an entrepreneur”, he said.

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Patel also expressed concern at the fact that the former government had taken no initiative on the infrastructural facilities at the industrial estates.

In an apparent off-the-cuff decision, the chief minister said if the industrialists wanted to test the State government’s commitment to progress, he was willing to form a panel including State Industries Minister Suresh Mehta and VCCI president Prafull Gandhi to deal with any problems Vadodara entrepreneurs may be facing. “I am always ready to back industrialists from the region”, he added.

Even while admitting power supply had been irregular, Patel said the State government was trying to provide the best infrastructure to pave the way to prosperity for the entire State. “And I mean it. You may be consider the formation of a panel or submission of a memorandum a stereotyped government gesture, but I mean it”, he added.

Patel exhorted industrialists to adopt new technology for the ultimate growth of the State. “Change is a must”, he said, adding that industrialists should not only take initiatives but also involve government agencies.

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He referred, in this context, to the 200-acre Infocity planned at Gandhinagar which, he said, had already been approved by the Centre. “It will be one of a kind in the country, far bigger than the 10-acre infocity in Calcutta”, Patel said, In his speech, Suresh Mehta enumerated the various industry-friendly gestures the State government had made. He also maintained that the power supply had improved to a large extent in recent past. “Under the State government’s Gujarat Vision 2010′ master plan, all basic infrastructure will be provided to industrialists in the State”, he said.

Besides Patel and Mehta, State Industries Commissioner Kiritbhai Shelat, VCCI president Prafull Gandhi, exhibition chairman Nilesh Shukla and VCCI vice-president Mahesh Mehta spoke on the occasion.

An impressive 10-minute-long laser show, depicting VCCI activities and backed up by instrumental and vocal music, was the highlight of the inauguration of the five-day mega show.