Within just four days after Prime Minister Modi promised a textile park to Telangana, the central government changed its track. After repeated requests, the centre sanctioned a textile park and the state government began works on the Kakatiya Mega Textile Park at Shayampet village in Warangal district in 2017. It has acquired 1,200 acres of land and spent Rs. 1,000 crore for internal roads, power supply, and sewage treatment plant among others. Now the central government has come up with new queries stating that the upcoming textile park in Telangana is not in conformity with PM Mitra scheme and hence it cannot be supported by the central government.
The state government has sanctioned land in the textile park to Kitex, Ganesha Ecosphere, and other companies. Ganesha Ecosphere had already started production while the Kitex is about to start production in a few days. The central government has decided to sanction seven textile parks under PM Mitra (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) parks scheme in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh among others. It was decided to sanction Rs. 4,445 crore for the purpose and they are supposed to be complete by 2027-28.
The states were supposed to acquire 1,000 acres of land. In the textile park, centre will have 49 percent and the respective state will have 51 percent share.
With the new rules being imposed on the scheme, Telangana state is not likely to be included in the PM Mithra scheme. To benefit from the scheme, the Telangana government has to start afresh at another place for the purpose else it should give up hoping for central funds. This is nothing but a great deception by the central government.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao