The Maharashtra leadership has made a huge effort to outbid other States with a competitive offer, but the decision to choose Gujarat for the deal was on the basis of professional and independent advice, Vedanta Resources Limited Chairman Anil Agarwal said following the Vedanta-Foxconn’s decision to set up their $20 billion semiconductor unit in Gujarat instead of Maharashtra.
He said that they had decided on Gujarat a few months ago as the State Government met their expectations. “But in the July meeting with the Maharashtra leadership, they made a huge effort to outbid other States with a competitive offer. We have to start in one place, and based on professional and independent advice we chose Gujarat,” Mr. Agarwal said.
The 68-year-old billionaire industrialist took to Twitter and said that Vedanta-Foxconn had been professionally assessing the site for a multibillion-dollar investment. “This is a scientific and financial process which takes several years. We started this about 2 years ago.
“This multibillion-dollar long-term investment will change the course of Indian electronics. We will create a pan-India ecosystem and are fully committed to investing in Maharashtra as well. Maharashtra will be our key to forwarding integration in our Gujarat JV [joint venture],” Mr. Agarwal said.
Ever since the company announced their JV and signed a deal with the Gujarat Government for setting up the mega semi-conductor unit, two days ago, it has triggered a political blame game in the State and previous ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ – the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress — has cornered the State Government for letting the megaproject slip away from Maharashtra as proposed earlier.
Slamming the Opposition for making false claims over the multibillion-dollar project, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that it was disappointing that negative, false and baseless claims were being spread to gain political mileage.
He further questioned the Opposition leader over the Nanar refinery project. “I want to ask Opposition leaders, who sent back ₹3.5 lakh crore refinery from Maharashtra?”
“It is disappointing that negative, false and baseless claims are being spread to gain political mileage. This is only to hide their own incompetence. My advice to these leaders is to focus on becoming competent and efficient and not negative and desperate,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government didn’t cooperate on the Vedanta-Foxconn project, and he did not want to get into the blame game over neighbouring Gujarat bagging the project. “The Opposition can introspect,” he said.
He said that the group has said it would set up a manufacturing hub for iPhone and TV equipment in the State, which is a big thing and they welcome it.
Meanwhile, Mumbai BJP president and MLA Ashish Shelar demanded a probe by a retired judge to assess the exact measures undertaken by the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi Government to retain the project.
“A retired judge should be appointed to probe the exact efforts undertaken by the then MVA Government to retain the Vedanta-Foxconn project investment in Maharashtra,” said adding that details, including minutes of the meetings, held, subsidies offered by the State Industries Ministry should be made public.
