Ahead of GIS, MP MSMEs fear more investments would lead to more infra issues for them

Bhopal, Sep 7 (KNN) Feeling neglected during the Global Investor Summit in the state, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Madhya Pradesh have sought Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s attention towards their problems mainly related to infrastructure.

An exclusive session of Global Investors Summit-V (GIS-V) has been called for the state MSMEs. Bhopal will host the exclusive session as a part of the GIS-V, on 1 October this year. The GIS-V will be organized on 22-23 October, 2016, in Indore. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is official partner of the state government in hosting the event.

Talking to KNN, the Gautam Kothari, President of Pithampur Audyogik Sangthan said, “They are calling big investors to invest in Madhya Pradesh but the old MSMEs in the state are totally being neglected by the government.”

He complained that the infrastructure of the industrial areas is very poor. Quality of electricity has become so bad that as a result of this the industries which require continuous power supply are on the verge of closure.

Speaking about the water availability for MSMEs, he said “We did not receive water supply for four months. Water supply has been deteriorating since 2001.”

Elaborating the problem of water, he said that the government had constructed the water sources in the year 1993. At that time industries were less in numbers and water was sufficient. But later number of industries started to increase however sources of water did not increase.

“Water gets stolen from the water resources for farming purpose, but we can’t open our mouths and even the administration does not do anything because they are farmers,” he said.

Kothari further stated that in 2014, government had planned to give water to Pritampur from Narmada-Shipra water link. They had taken the project under Delhi- Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). The project cost was around Rs. 306 crore where DIMC’s would be 40 per cent. Everything was lined up in 2014 but the tender has come now in 2016 and two year is processing time. 

“It clearly means that we won’t get water for next three years,” he added.   

He said that the new investors who would come to the state would further lead to lack of availability of water.

In past, the state government had included MSMEs in global investors' summit but they were somehow shadowed with the presence of large number of big-ticket investors. This season, state government has decided to organise a separate session in Bhopal for MSMEs.

A mega exhibition will also be organized at the GIS to show case potential of the state. As many as 3000 delegates from home and 500 from abroad are expected in the summit. Of them 1000 will be from Madhya Pradesh, 1000 from other states. (KNN Bureau)