Andhra Pradesh: Proposed Electronic Manufacturing Clusters in trouble
Lack of coordination between IT department and APIIC causing delay.
Vijayawada: The Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) proposed to be set up in Visakhapatnam and Chittoor districts have landed in problems even before the first phase of work begins.
The EMC scheme is aimed at supporting creation of world-class infrastructure for attracting investments in the Electronics Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Sector. EMCs scheme supports grant assistance for setting up of both Greenfield and Brownfield EMCs.
The financial assistance under the scheme is in the form of grant-in-aid only. For Greenfield EMCs, the assistance is 50 per cent of the project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore for every 100 acre of land. For Brown-field EMCs, the assistance is up to 75 per cent of the project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore. However, the APIICs guidelines have hampered the interests of the entrepreneurs, who wish to invest in EMCs of Visakhapatnam and Chittoor districts.
Among the 20 Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) proposed across the state of Andhra Pradesh as part of Electronic Policy to encourage electronic manufacturing, the policy plans to establish 20 EMCs at Tirupati, Guntur, Chittoor, Vizianagaram, Nellore, Anantapur, Srikakulam and other places. Hefty subsidy and incentives will be offered to investors in EMC and electronic bazaars, as per the policy of the government in order to encourage the Internet Of Things (IOT), hardware and its related institutions in the EMCs.
“In fact, it has become very difficult to bring in Microsoft and Infosys kind of companies to the state of Andhra Pradesh, due to the ongoing disappointing trend in the software industry,” said a senior officer of the IT department.
Keeping in view the same, we have chosen the path of the EMCs, to promote the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sectors through EMCs, he said and added that they have chosen the APIIC as their platform to execute the things.
Exactly, the problem started here. The moment, entrepreneurs are step into the premises of APIIC; they are reportedly being haras-sed by few staff members to move their files in a normal manner. When the same was brought to the notice of the APIIC executive vice-chairman Dr P. Krishnaiah, he said that staff responsible for intentional delay to move the files, have to face departmental action. “We can’t tolerate such inordinate delays,” he clarified and added that the APIIC would support the cause of the industry and entrepreneurs.
When asked about the lack of coordination between the IT department and APIIC in identifying the lands and other administrative procedures, he said that regular VC and MD would take care of those particular subjects. IT Secretary P. S. Pradyumna was not available for comment.