Karnataka attracted Rs 1.38 lakh crore investment this year: Jagadish Shettar

Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar claimed that Karnataka has attracted Rs 1.38 lakh crore investment since January this year.

Addressing the party workers during inaugurating of election office of West Graduates Constituency BJP candidate S V Sankanur here on Saturday, he said of the Rs 2.86 lakh crore investment that India attracted during the first six months of the year, Karnataka alone attracted Rs 1.16 lakh crore, which is 41% of the total investment that the country attracted during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The state stands first in the county in terms of attracting investment in the industrial sector, he said and added that this was possible because of the various land and APMC reforms that the state government has brought. He said, unlike in the past where the majority of the investment was limited to Old-Mysuru region or Bengaluru, our current government has ensured that districts such as Belagavi, Dharwad and Raichur are also benefited.

Reforms in Land Acquisition Act and APMC Act is the need of the hour and opposition leaders are unnecessarily creating hurdles for the development of the state.

Since the setting up of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) in 1996, the board has acquired nearly 1.58 lakh of agriculture land for setting up of industries. However, that is only one per cent of the total agriculture land in Karnataka. The opposition leaders are making a hue and cry over scarping of section 79A (acquisition of land by certain persons prohibited) and 79B (prohibition on holding agricultural lands by certain persons) of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act. However, none of the previous state governments could recover even a single acre out of the 1.7 lakh acres of land that was acquired by violating those sections, he said and added that reforms made to the Act have helped the state get better investments.

Belagavi LS by-polls

Shettar also clarified that party has not started any discussion over the candidate for the Belagavi Lok Sabha by-polls that has been necessitated due to death of Union Minister of State for Railway Suresh Angadi.