No farm land for industries, says CM

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Thursday reiterated that no agricultural land will be acquired for industrial development in the State.

“Only land unsuitable for agriculture will be taken up," he said at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a new building of the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) in Gandhinagar here.

“Sometimes, while in the process of achieving good results one gets abused and it was the case with the KIADB,” Shettar said. He promised that he would look into the matter of pensions of those working with the KIADB, and directed the Minister for Large and Medium Industries Murugesh R Nirani to send the required files to his office.

Lauding Nirani for bringing more investments through the Global Investors’ Meet (GIM), Shettar said that the government had cleared many proposals in the two editions of GIM. “In the first edition, an investment of Rs five lakh crore was brought in and in 2012 we got over Rs seven lakh crore,” he said.

Nirani said the KIADB, which had no office of its own for over 40 years would have a six-storied building. “The construction of the building will be complete in 18 months and would cost Rs 23 crore,” he said.