PANAJI
The government came under Opposition fire on Thursday for giving a Cabinet nod for a red category project which the Investment Promotion Board had not given approval and marked as “deferred” when it came up approval. M/s Mohit Ispat Pvt. Ltd. had in its proposal to the IPB asked for an increase in production capacity of TMT Hot Rolled MS products (capacity of 84,000 metric tonnes per annum) that was to come up in Navelim, Bicholim. IPB had not cleared the project and had marked it as deferred at the time when it came up for approval. The question that was originally slated for the Budget session, was finally presented in the House where it was revealed by Industries Minister and the Chief Minister, that the Cabinet had approved the company s project. When Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte questioned how the Cabinet could give such permissions, Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar didn t have a clear answer, but instead said the project was for shifting and not for expansion. Defending the government, Industries Minister Mahadev Naik claimed that the company had only sought to transfer its plant from Kundaim Industrial Estate to Navelim in Bicholim. He denied that the company had sought expansion. The industry exists at Kundaim since 1992 and had applied for the transfer in 2005 after it acquired the land at Navelim village, Naik said. Stating that Mohit Ispat had a requirement of 13.2 MW of power, which was not available with the State, he said the government needed to stop promoting steel industries that were not catering to the employment sector. Parsekar, while accusing Khaunte of trying to mislead the people using the floor of the House, informed that IPB had received 30 projects for expansion, of which only one had been completed while the rest were still working on their respective expansions. He also questioned why the legislator was harping on a single unit (Mohit Ispat). “I caution you, questioning about only one industry consistently on the floor of the House can send wrong signals to the outside world,” the chief minister said.
