Corrupt practices during Congress rule destroyed Andhra Pradesh’s brand image as an investment destination and led to a decline in its industrial growth by half a per cent, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said here on Friday.
Releasing a white paper on industries, which is the third in the series of white papers on various sectors, he said the industrial sector contributed 24.11% to AP’s gross domestic product until 2004 when the Telugu Desam was in power but fell to 23.61% during the decade of Congress rule.
Agriculture’s share fell drastically from 25.96% in 2004 to 19.04% while the services sector’s contribution increased from 49.92% to 57.34%.
“The quid pro quo system adopted by the then Y S Rajasekhara Reddy regime from 2004 to 2009 scared investors away from the state. Major industries like Volkswagen, Royal Enfield, Tata Motors, Siemens and others which showed interest in setting up their units in Andhra Pradesh shifted to other states due to government corruption,“ he said.
“By 2005, 9.72 lakh jobs were created in Andhra Pradesh compared to 8.87 lakh jobs in Gujarat, but by 2012, Gujarat overtook Andhra Pradesh creating 13.83 lakh jobs as against 13.62 lakh jobs in Andhra Pradesh. This clearly established that AP lost its competitive edge,“ Chandrababu said.
“The Congress government entered into quid pro quo deals and allotted lands to benefit only certain individuals. The CAG established that 88,492 acres of land was indiscriminately allotted to 1,027 beneficiaries,“ he said.
“Brahmani Industries of former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy was given 10,760 acres, while over 19,000 acres were allotted to Vanpic and 8,844 acres were allotted to a realtor in the name of Lepakshi Knowledge Hub. The realtor pledged half of the land and borrowed . 790 crore from banks to further ` his business activities,“ he said. PTI