'Industrial policy benefits not reaching needy'

Rajya Sabha member L Hanumanthaiah, who is also the president of Karnataka State SC/ST Industrialists' Association, lamented that the benefits of the new industrial policy for 2014 to 2019 are not reaching the interested and deserved persons due to the negligence by officials, though it is a model policy for the entire country.

"Land allotted to SC/ST entrepreneurs, by KIADB and KSSIDC, is very less, and many deputy commissioners have not conducted district-level single window clearance committee meetings. Moreover, the KSFC has stopped giving loans for purchasing land, and the government should stop such wrong move," he said.

Dr Hanumanthaiah told media persons here on Wednesday that the Union Government should also implement an industrial policy on the model of the one of Karnataka, for the benefit of SC/ST community members by giving more subsidy for purchasing industrial plots.

Like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the Centre should also implement special component programme for SC/ST community, and spend money as per their population. The amount being allocated for the SC/ST welfare has come down during the NDA regime. Industrialists of SC/ST communities got less land and loan, than the expectation, he said.

Though SC/ST industrialists repay the loan amount honestly, the KSFC has stopped giving loan to purchase land, and this is an anti-SC/ST move. The KSFC officials are working unprofessionally. Some nationalised banks are also not giving 4% interest loan to SC/ST industrialists. Though schemes are there, they are not being implemented properly, Hanumanthaiah added.

Earlier, he was felicitated on behalf of Sir M Visvesvaraya Heat Treatment & Engineering Cluster, for being elected to the Rajya Sabha.