By Raju Kumar
BHOPAL: Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan is over excited after the fourth Global Investors Summit organized at Indore. His excitement can be ascribed to two reasons. First, the Prime Minister came to join the Summit and he appreciated Mr Chauhan a lot for the development of the state. Second reason is the quantum of investment promised during the Summit which amounts to around two and half lakh crores. The investments were promised not only by the private sector entrepreneurs, but many central ministries taking part in the Summit promised the same.
After these investments proposals and announcement, the Chief Minister is confidently claiming that after putting the state on the path of high agricultural growth, he will be able to put it on the road of industrial development as well. But it is easier said than done. Three such Summits had been held prior to the fourth one. In all those previous Summits, a lot of promises for lakhs of crores of investment were made too, but they remained confined to the proposal letters themselves. Expectations were raised among the youth that lakhs of job opportunities would be created, but those expectations could not be fulfilled.
In the last Summit, 9 countries were made partners and ambassadors of 38 countries took part in it, but no investment proposals were received from those countries. Global Summits have failed to attract foreign investment so far.
Earlier it had become a fashion to compare such Summits held in Madhya Pradesh with the similar Summits held in Gujarat. During those days, the Chief Ministers of both the states were competing with one another to emerge as the Development Man on national level. That is why neither then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi used to praise Chauhan nor Chauhan used to praise Modi. Now situation has changed. Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister of India and there is no competition between them.
The change of the situation has prompted Modi to shower praise on Chauhan. He predicted that under Chauhan Madhya Pradesh will become the number one state of country very soon. He said that during the last ten years Madhya Pradesh has become the fastest growing state of India due to the policies pursued by Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Overwhelmed by such praise, Chauhan exclaimed that by promoting “Make in MP”, he would make sure that “Make in India” dream of the PM is realized.
Global Investors Summit helped Chauhan to demonstrate his political clout as well. In the centre, NDA is ruling. This made it possible for the Speaker of the Lok Sabha as well as many Central Ministers to take part in the Summit. Many Central Ministers made many announcements for the development of the state. Chemical and Fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar announced that the Central Government will develop a Petro Chemical Investment Zone in Bina refinery region and invest Rs one lakh crore for that purpose. It was just a coincidence that the Central Ministers attending the Summit made their announcement at the meet, otherwise they were already preparing such projects and those investments would have been made even without the Summit. But their announcements in the Summit raised the stature of the CM and give him an opportunity to claim credit for those central investments.
Central Forest and Environment Minister Prakash Javedekar announced that his Ministry could not make investment, but would give the environment clearance quickly. He informed the Summit that during the last 120 days, clearances of all 60 projects of Madhya Pradesh had already been given.
All these investment proposals and announcement will take time to be implemented. In Bina, people are agitating that their land was acquired with the promise that they would be given employment in the refineries, but the promises have not been met. The development also raised the problems of the native tribals, who get displaced by it and could not be compensated properly. It is difficult to guess whether the state government would be able to prepare a land bank of 25 thousand acres required for those projects. (IPA Service)
