The Hindu Business Line : Kerala lagging in Central investments: Minister

Thiruvananthapuram March 14 Central investments in Kerala have lagged those in other States by a wide margin, the Industries Minister, Mr Elamaram Kareem, told the Assembly on Wednesday.

Investments in public sector units in the State were below the national average, he said in reply to a calling attention motion.

Giving figures, he said that Central investments in the State amounted to Rs 16,828 crore as of March 2005.

This made up for no more than 2.60 per cent of the total investments committed by the Centre in the whole of the country.

15th AMONG STATES

The State stood 15th among States listed in the descending order of receiving Central investments. It had nearly drawn a blank with respect to attracting fresh Central commitments in the manufacturing sector, with the last few years yielding practically nothing.

Detailing recent initiatives in this regard, Mr Kareem said that talks were on with NTPC in pursuance of a proposal for investing in Transformers and Electricals Kerala (Telk).

The Railways has agreed to set up a bogie-building unit at Autokast Ltd, another State-owned unit.

Talks are on with the Department of Defence for possible investments in Kerala High Tech Industries (Keltec) in Thiruvananthapuram.

ARRACK BAN

The State Government has no intention to lift the ban on arrack, according to Excise Minister Mr P.K. Gurudasan.

The Minister told the House during question hour that banning the sale of IMFL was not on the agenda either.

Earlier, the Congress-led Opposition walked out in protest against the Government's refusal to discuss the new liquor policy.

It had demanded that an adjournment motion be ordered to discuss the issue.

But the Speaker, Mr K. Radhakrishnan, did not agree and proposed that the Opposition raise it as the first submission. But the latter protested, and chose to walk out of the House.

PFA ACT

The State Government has decided to strictly implement the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA Act), as reports of rampant violations have come to its notice lately.

Announcing this in the House, the Health Minister, Ms P.K. Sreemathi, said that the predominantly consumerist State was heavily dependent on neighbours for daily supply of fruits, vegetables and other essential commodities.

Citing frequent cases of pesticide and chemical contamination in the supplies arriving into the State, the Minister said in reply to a calling attention motion that it was never easy monitoring the adulteration being carried out at disparate production centres.

The State Government was committed to doing its best under the circumstances; it would engage more inspection squads to check the sale of adulterated food articles.

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