‘State was never in the picture’: Ex-Maharashtra minister on Vedanta-Foxconn project going to Gujarat

Shiv Sena leader and former industries minister Subhash Desai said for one year during the MVA government, they had discussions with Vedanta and Foxconn at various stages. “We had almost finalised several issues,” he said.

Vedanta Group’s Global Managing Director of Display & Semiconductor Busines, Akarsh Hebbar and Government of Gujarat Secretary of DST (Department of Science & Technology), Vijay Nehra during an MoU signing ceremony regarding the manufacturing semiconductor and display fab in the state, in Ahmedabad. (PTI)

Expressing surprise at the joint venture of mining conglomerate Vedanta and Foxconn being announced in Gujarat, Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai, who was the industries minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government, Wednesday said Gujarat was nowhere in the picture when the discussions about the project was on.

“The project was being discussed for Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. At that time, there were these three states in competition. All the three states were dominant in IT resources. Gujarat was never in the picture when discussions were being held with representatives of Vedanta and Foxconn,” Desai told The Indian Express.

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Desai said for one year during the MVA government, they had discussions with Vedanta and Foxconn at various stages. “We had almost finalised several issues,” he said.

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Desai and then MVA minister Aditya Thackeray had met Vedanta CEO Anil Agarwal during the conference at the World Economic Forum in June. “He took all the information from us regarding the availability of infrastructure, manpower, water and land for the project. After the discussions, he (Agarwal) said they were satisfied that things they were looking for to set up the project were available in Maharashtra. He had said they would certainly set up the project in Maharashtra. In the same breath, he, however, had added that the central government’s approval was needed for the project. His remarks had then created doubts in our minds,” Desai said.

In June in New Delhi, Desai said he met Foxconn chairman Young Live who seemed keen to set up the project. “We answered every question that he threw at us and sought to dispel doubts raised by him. We told him about the availability of land in Talegaon MIDC area and abundant manpower. We told him that nearly over a thousand engineering colleges and 200 ITIs function in Maharashtra besides the IT parks in Hinjewadi and Kharadi which are close to Talegaon. We had a positive discussion and therefore were confident that Maharashtra will get the project,” he said.

The Opposition parties have also reacted strongly on the issue.

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National Congress Party’s chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, “Is CM Shinde serving the interest of Maharashtra or serving the interest of Gujarat?”

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Tapase said that the previous MVA government had initiated proper dialogues and discussion with Vedanta Foxconn for investment in Maharashtra and Talegaon was finalised as the location. “The MVA government had offered best incentives to Vedanta Foxconn with an intention of creating huge employment opportunities for the local youth. A number of small MSME units, who were looking forward to business opportunities with Vedant-Foxconn, are now in total disarray,” said Tapase.

He added, “It is a shame that the newly-formed government could not retain Vedanta Foxconn in Maharashtra. This shows the lackadaisical attitude of CM Shinde towards development of the state as he succumbed to Gujarat at the cost of economic losses of Maharashtra and employment loss of lakhs of aspirants. Unfortunately, our CM is busy justifying his rebellion to the people of Maharashtra and does not even talk of development issues like employment and industrialisation. The CM owes an explanation to the people of Maharashtra.”

Congress leader Satyajeet Tambe urged Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to urgently look into the matter and bring the Vedanta Foxconn semiconductor plant project back to Maharashtra, which has now been announced in Gujarat.

“Such a project has never been implemented in the entire world except in Korea, not even in China. Vedanta group was bringing this technology for the first time where Maharashtra had the opportunity to generate thousands of jobs and ancillary units which would have further generated opportunities for the youth. This is a huge blow for the youths of Maharashtra and yet another betrayal. This failure is pushing the future of the people of Maharashtra in the dark. Devendra Fadnavis must try his best and ensure the project is brought back to Maharashtra,” said Tambe.

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Last year, on 29 September, Tambe had written to Union cabinet minister Piyush Goyal to urge him to set up a semiconductor facility in Nashik.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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