Telangana Chief Minister K Chandra Sekhar Rao’s words of making the new state graft free may be just on words but not in action. Global FMCG major, Proctor & Gamble earlier this week met the Chief Minister and explained him how the officials have been troubling them from establishing Asia’s biggest manufacturing facility at an investment of $ 800 million. The company had acquired 150 acres of land in 2012 to setup the plant but is till battling various hiccups.
Firstly the state metro-logy department seized the weighing equipment brought from overseas to install in the plant, on some technical grounds. The R&B department had slapped a fine of 60 Lakhs on the company as the setup will increase the traffic in the area. A revenue official threatened the company with a criminal case for having mistakenly used a small portion of government land in laying the approach road for the company. This came even after the company offered to pay fine for the mistake.
There was a notice with the company that a person claims ownership on a land parcel out of the total 150 acres acquired for the company. Despite several pleas the government officials continue to ignore the company’s problems and the global major alleges that they are being tormented for nothing but bribes. Unless the Chief Minister intervenes, the investors for sure will have second thoughts over coming to the new state. This project will cater to the entire South India market and is with a capacity that will exceed that of all its existing plants in India put together.It is expected to provide 1,500 direct and over 4,000 indirect jobs once it is fully operational.
