Business as usual

HAVING survived the political pulls and pressures from outside the ruling formation and also from the coalition partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has turned her attention to issues of governance.

Amidst intense criticism from the BJP on the issue of using the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) against former Minister and BJP supporter Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, Mayawati arrived in New Delhi on January 31 accompanied by a large entourage of bureaucrats to hold an " investment launch" aimed at attracting private entrepreneurs and to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Jaiprakash group of industries to build an ambitious Delhi Agra expressway at a cost of Rs.2,500 crores. The Taj Expressway, which is likely to be completed by 2007, is expected to lead to huge private investment in the hospitality and services sectors in the region between Delhi and Agra, along the banks of the Yamuna. It promises to cut travel time between Delhi and Agra by half, making the latter an even more attractive tourist destination.

She invited entrepreneurs to invest Rs.15,000 crores to Rs.20,000 crores in various projects which she announced on the occasion. The projects, she said, would be located in areas identified as Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which would be developed by private promoters who would be the sole administrators of the projects. There would be minimum interference from the State, which would play the role of a facilitator. She informed the assembled industrialists that the SEZ status would enable them to avail of tax holidays, excise exemptions and various other facilities, which would improve profits and make functioning easier. Uttar Pradesh has enacted the SEZ Development Authority Act, 2002, the only one of its kind in the country. The Government of India had announced the setting up of a series of new SEZs, in its exim policy 2000-01. While most other States are still struggling with the modalities, Uttar Pradesh, despite its political problems, has enacted the law. Immediately after the Act came into being, Mayawati secured the government of India's sanction for three SEZs, namely the Taj Economic Zone, the Kanpur Special Economic Zone and the Purva Special Economic Zone.

The Purva SEZ promises to change the face of eastern Uttar Pradesh, which is the most backward area in the State despite the presence of a traditional silk and carpet industry. A fourth SEZ is being planned in Moradabad to promote the traditional brass and metalware industry in the region. Some of the important projects in these economic zones include a fully wired Web City, a Medi City, a Biotech City and an Apparel Park in the Taj Economic Zone, which has the potential to become one of the most thriving economic zones in the country. In the Kanpur SEZ, the leather and textile industries are expected to get an impetus.

Mayawati has put an administrative system in place to achieve the desired results. The post of an Industrial Development Commissioner has been created to synergise private and public partnership in industry. The present incumbent in this post, Shashank Shekhar Singh, had spearheaded the effort to formulate the SEZ policy.

Mayawati has designated the Chief Secretary of the State as the Chief Investment Commissioner and Chief NRI Commissioner, making him responsible and accountable for inviting and ensuring investment from private partners, mainly Non-Resident Indians. The Resident Commissioner in Delhi will be re-designated NRI Commissioner; he will be in charge in Delhi of efforts to secure private investments. At the Invest Launch, Mayawati admitted that the State had neither the resources nor the expertise to set up new industries. She admitted that with "the government everywhere coming under fiscal pressures, the way ahead lies in evolving innovative strategies of attracting mutually beneficial private investments and initiatives."

She said that the "government should concentrate its energies on the core issues of governance and let the private sector do things that they are better equipped to do, like setting up industries and doing trade and commerce." Global tenders have been floated to choose promoters for the three SEZs.