IT companies moving out of Pune to Bengaluru, Hyderabad: Ajit Pawar

Mumbai: Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's claim that IT companies from Hinjawadi in Pune are moving to Bengaluru and Hyderabad - has sparked off a political debate in Maharashtra with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi slamming the BJP-led Maha Yuti government.

Known as Pune’s Silicon Valley, Hinjawadi (also spelled Hinjewadi) houses the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park, a large tech and business park spread over 2,800 acres - which was built by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). The sprawling tech park has nearly 800 to 1,000 companies involved in multiple businesses like IT, ITES, data centres, call centres.

Once considered an investor’s paradise in Pune, the area is facing multiple infrastructure issues like roads, water supply, electricity, civic problems, traffic mess and monsoon-related problems.

Locals are demanding that Hinjewadi which falls under Mulshi tehsil of Pune district be merged with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.

The political issue sparked off after Pawar, who is the state finance and planning minister and also the Pune district guardian minister, conducted an inspection of Hinjewadi on Saturday.

“We are ruined. The entire IT park of Hinjewadi is moving out. It's going out of Pune, out of Maharashtra to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, don't you care at all?,” Pawar said while he was having an interaction with a local sarpanch Ganesh Jambhulkar.

“Why do I come here for inspections at six (am) in the morning? I don't understand. There's no alternative but to take strict action," Pawar said while asking media persons to switch off their cameras.

As soon as the clip of Pawar’s outburst went viral it gave fodder to the MVA to target the Devendra Fadnavis-led government.

“The IT industry that developed in Hinjewadi during the Congress regime is now moving towards Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Pawar himself has accepted this, so the question arises whether the state government and Pune's guardian minister were sleeping till then?,” said state Congress president Harshavardhan Sapkal seeking the resignation of Pawar.

“Pune has been a very important centre of Maharashtra from industrial, cultural and political point of view. Pune's glorious position has now become history. The Koita gang and drug trade are running openly in the city. The entire city gets submerged in water in one rain and the severe traffic problem has suffocated the industries. Law and order has deteriorated in the state, entrepreneurs are troubled by the corruption of the ruling party and the hooliganism of the officials. Due to the poor condition of infrastructure, IT industries are migrating from Maharashtra,” said Sapkal.

“The industries which are in the state are also leaving and those which could have come - like Vedanta-Foxconn - have been put in the lap of Gujarat due to the ineffective functioning of the BJP government. This project was going to give an investment of Rs 1.6 lakh crore and 2 lakh jobs, but Maharashtra was deprived of it. Now that the Deputy Chief Minister himself is admitting that industries are leaving the state, the government should disclose why this is happening,” he added.