2,500 acres of land acquired for industrial estates in K'taka

Udupi, Oct 26 (UNI) The Karnataka Government has acquired 2,500 acres of land for creation of industrial estates to encourage and give fillip to small entrepreneurs in the State, Small Scale Industries Minister Shivananda Naik said today.

Addressing newspersons after chairing a departmental meeting here, he said 1,000 acres had been acquired at Ganapathihalli near Bangalore to be allotted to eligible entrepreneurs. To avoid any complaints, the Ministry had decided to select the beneficiaries through a committee instead of auctions as practised earlier.

Mr Naik said that for the first time, the State Government, under the Suvarna Kayaka Yojana, had contemplated to train one lakh unemployed rural men and women with a stipend of Rs 1,500. The Government had set apart Rs 60 crore for providing stipend, which would be equally shared by the Government and the respective SSI.

Several SSIs have also agreed to absorb successful candidates after the training, he added.

The Minister said the subsidy amount to SSI units in the State was pending since 1999. The BJP-JD(S) coalition Government had released Rs 94 crore as subsidy this year in addition to the already released Rs 34 crore. The subsidy arrears had now come down to Rs 256 crore from Rs 420 crore. The Ministry had urged the Chief Minister and Finance Minister to release another subsidy installment at the earliest, to which they had responded positively.

He said a Committee, constituted by the Ministry, was now touring all districts of the State to study the problems being faced by small entrepreneurs. After getting reports from the Committee, suitable redressal measures would be taken up by the Government. The Ministry had also taken steps to provide required infrastructure in the industrial estates, before handing it over to the local body/small industries associations for maintenance.

Mr Naik said the Government was also considering a proposal for one time settlement of sick units in the State.

To a query, he said the Government would soon take action on the proposal to acquire 220 acres of Government land at Anjaru and another land near Nandikur (both in Udupi) through KIADB for creation of two more industrial estates in the district.

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