Himachal government headed by Jai Ram Thakur seems to be fast tracking on investment runway. It is rushing to sign as many agreements (MoUs) before November Investment Summit. The other day , state govt signed 93 MoUs to attract more than Rs. 4700 crore investment. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and his team have signed over 400 MoUs till now during this year involving nearly 50,000 crore investment in the state. This could generate direct and indirect employment to more than 5 lakh people. Indeed, a massive initiative.
Not only present dispensation, earlier governments had made some efforts to map out the state on industrialization . And going by the initiatives as made from time to time, by now the entire Himachal should have been a leading manufacturing hub, However, harsh reality is that except BBN (Baddi-, Barotiwala and Nalagarh), there is a hardly any sustained industrialized area. Even Mehatpur. the bordering Punjab hasn't come up as good as Ludhiana or Jalandhar.
On the contrary, the slew of incentives including concessional industrial plots, capital and transport subsidies have gone down the drain and grossly misused. Industrial units came and subsequently disappeared as long capital subsidy was there. The concessional plots were usurped by political leaders, therir kins and babus. More than 80 percent of industrial plots in Parwanoo and BBN were owned by political leaders, babus and their clans. most of them were later sold at hefty premium. Its a big scam and loot of state precious resources. But as leaders of all hue and cry distributed the loot among-st themselves, there was hardly any voice against this loot. And most of those units who were left behind ran in losses. The end result was that state ended up as a cropper as far as industrialist was concerned. Except for few cement factories and pharma units, no other manufacturing segment could survive. Even the corrugated carton manufacturing industries run in losses.
The loot still continues. The state govt decided to tap its cast hydro-power potential by involving private equity participation. And micro and small hydro power projects were offered for private sector. Here also, most of these projects were distributed ( not allotted) to party workers, kith and kin of state political leaders, rather than allotted on commercial viability. And here also, end result was that most of micro and small hydro power units are being resold or running in losses. Almost. each sector has its own story mired in favoritism.
As a matter of fact, industrialization can only sustain on comparative advantages and commercial viability of the projects. Sadly, commercial viability is an anathema in the contemporary highly politicized system. Every decision including economical and financial is seen through political spectacles. I am still confused how can investment decision be made on spots without working out the viability. If are made on flight mode, such investment decisions are either hollow or just showpieces. Remember how in past ambitious projects like Ford Ski Village in Manali had to be abandoned. There were tall claims over rope way and bi housing projects but none of them have come up as yet.
Employment generation, undoubtedly. should be the foremost task in Himachal for any govt. With more and more universities, medical, dental and engineering colleges and other technical institutions, unemployed youths are adding to the queues. We must remember that youthful energies if not channelized into productive purposes, become destructive. Such a situation could lead to social and political strife. Jai Ram Thakur is doing a good job by focusing on investment and employment generation. But , it has to be more pragmatic than rhetoric.
(Chander Sharma)