What Kitex incident message to Kerala based industrialist
Kitex garments, a major industrial group in the state of Kerala, has announced its withdrawal from the Rs 35000 crore investment project. They were alleged harassment from the state government officials. Kitex garments Limited has said that it has decided to withdraw from the project which was signed by Kochi last year. The chairperson of the group Sabu M Jacob has said that various units of Kitex have been raided almost 10 to 11 times by officials from various departments during the past month. The Kitex factory in Kochi has been functioning for the last 26 years and has over 10,000 employees. In Kerala, Kitex group has been the biggest private employer.
A lot of industrialists and the Kerala State Government came actively forward with regard to Kitex Garments’ scrapping of Rs.3, 500 crore project in the state.
MA Yusuff Ali, LuLu Group chairman has said that he would request Kitex Group to not leave Kerala and expressed hope that the company and the State Government would hold discussions and resolve the issue amicably.
He said in a statement that whether it be one rupee or Rs.1 crore, no amount of investment should go out of Kerala.
Chairperson of RPG Enterprises, Harsh Goenka, has appreciated the Kerala policies. “We are the largest employers in Kerala. We find the local government very supportive,” he wrote in response to an economist’s tweet about an article on the state’s leading private-sector employer Kitex Garments’ decision to scrap Rs. 3,500 crore project alleging “Relentless Harassment By CPM-led Govt.”
Following the firm was alleged harassment in the way of inspections from various departments from the Kerala government. Telangana has now fast-tracked its attempt to attract the proposed project. It was said that the group would be investing 1000 crores for setting up a facility in Kakatiya Mega Textiles Park in Warangal. Telangana rolled out the red carpet by sending a private jet to bring text Promoters. Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son and industry minister KT Rama Rao sealed the deal.
This comes as a major boost to Telangana as well because it would generate about 4000 employment in the span of 2 years. The government of Telangana has guaranteed that they will give them full support in regard to any kind of cooperation required from the state government.
The chairman said earlier that Kitex Garments was exiting from ideas to invest ₹3,500 crores in an apparel park and three industrial parks in Kerala. These projects would have generated about 35,000 employment, he had said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday showed regret at the withdrawal of Kitex from Kerala and said the state government should be doing everything to support investors as Kerala is a state in which industrialists are “reluctant to invest” which, as he said, is affecting the employment situation for the talented people of Kerala. “Whatever your politics, it’s hard not to feel regret at Kitex’s departure from Kerala,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.
Kitex firm has newly pulled out a ₹35,000 crore proposed project from Kerala and selected Telangana for investment and said that the decision was not voluntary. For the reason for the exit, he blamed the Kerala government’s “witch-hunt and apathy”.
“Kerala has to learn many lessons from its neighbors. Otherwise, It will become a graveyard of industries,” Sabu said.
Kitex move to Telangana is viewed as a massive loss to Kerala in terms of the scope of the project. Mr. Jacob said he was not interested in investing in Kerala anymore because he was being treated like a trouble-maker. Hundreds of jobs were also taken. The whole controversy has been a threat to Kerala as it became notorious as a business-unfriendly state.
