Job-creation hit as Telangana delays land allotment

Hyderabad: Job-creation has taken a backseat with the delay in allotment of land to the Telangana state Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) to set up industries in districts in the state. 

Due to this, employment opportunities for over 30,000 persons have hit a road block.

To ensure a balanced industrial growth in all districts in the state and to check migration of workforce to Hyderabad, the Telangana state government had devised a policy to encourage industries in other districts in the state. 

Land bank was identified in 2015 for setting up industries in other districts. 
However, it was not handed over to the Telangana State  Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation, established in 2014 for identifying and developing potential growth centres in Telangana. 

The revenue department is still holding on to the land. Subsequently, the land bank dwarfed in size in each district, denting the confidence of investors and entrepreneurs about the seriousness of the government policy in encouraging industrial development in other districts. 

In Karimnagar district, for example, the government identified 56,088 acres in 2015. Later, the land was brought down to 28,619 acres in 2016, citing disputes.
By 2017, the extent of such lands further came down to just 5,816 acres. This time, no reasons were cited for this.

L. Praveen Reddy, OU unemployment JAC secretary, said, “The government failed to create 1.08 lakh jobs in the public sector in these 43 months. Students are left with no option but to opt for jobs in the private sector. Even the applications to set up industries are not approved fast. The government is focussing on Hyderabad and its surrounding districts. This is encouraging the youths to migrate to the city for employment. We have been agitating for government jobs all these months and now the time has come to take up agitation for private sector jobs.”

On the other hand, land allotment is done fast in the districts surrounding Hyderabad, which have witnessed a huge demand.

Mega industries with over Rs 200 crore investment or those which can provide employment to over 1,000 people are coming up in Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts. The green signal for these industries were given within 15 days under the TS-iPASS online policy.

However, applications from Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam are pending due to shortage of land.

“Focussing on Hyderabad and its surrounding districts will not help. Entrepreneurs want to set up Small and Medium-size Enterprise (SMEs) in other districts to cut down operational costs. 

They should be encouraged,” said K. Sudhir Reddy, president, Telangana Industrialists Welfare Federation. 

Over 3,000 applications are lying pending with the government to set up SMEs at an investment of '8,000 crore to employ 30,000 hands. About 153 applications have been submitted to set up granite-cutting, concrete, seed manufacturing, cotton, ginning, rice mills, cement, automobile and oil sector units.

New industries set shop in city 

Over 90 per cent of the new industries in the state are coming up in Hyderabad and its surrounding districts. Other districts are lagging behind. 

The government identified 2,34,909 acres of land in the state for industrial purposes and categorised the land in A, B and C groups as plain land, land with boulders and land with hillocks. 

The government asked district collectors to hand over the land to the TS Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) under Telangana BhuBank. 
The A category (plain land) can be utilised for industries immediately.

Ranga Reddy district has the largest chunk of the A category land, Khammam district has most B category land while Nizamabad has the most category C land. 
Currently, total acreage covered under the industrial park is 28,458 acre and land available for allotment is 5,430 acre.