Vedanta chief tries to douse political fire over Vedanta-Foxconn project

Vedanta Group chief Anil Agarwal has attempted to douse the political fire that has erupted because of the selection of Gujarat over Maharashtra for his companyrsquos semiconductor project He said on social media that the company was committed to investing in Maharashtra as part of its panIndia ecosystem for integration of the Gujarat joint ventureldquoThis multibillion dollar longterm investment will change the course of Indian electronics We will create a panIndia ecosystem and are fully committed to investing in Maharashtra as well Maharashtra will be our key to forward integration in our Gujarat JVrdquo tweeted Agarwal late Wednesday nightDeputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis welcomed Agarwalrsquos commitment and hit out at the opposition His party colleague Ashish Shelar demanded that the oppositionrsquos claims be probed by a retired high court judgeThe opposition did not buy Agarwalrsquos statement Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant claimed that the site at Gujaratrsquos Dholera was inconvenient and many companies including ISMC Digital wound up its plan to manufacture semiconductors thereAlso Read VedantaFoxconn plant going to Gujarat is attack on Maharashtras prestige Shiv SenaAgarwal said the company decided on Gujarat a few months ago as it met their expectations ldquoBut in the July meeting with Maharashtra leadership they made a huge effort to outbid other states with competitive offers We have to start in one place and based on professional and independent advice we chose Gujaratrdquo he saidElaborating on the site selection Agarwal said ldquoThis is a scientific and financial process which takes several years We started this about two years agordquo he said adding that a team of internal and external professional agencies shortlisted states such as Gujarat Karnataka Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu ldquoFor the last two years we have been engaging with each of these governments as well as the Central government and have received fantastic supportrdquoFadnavis reactsIn his first reaction after the controversy broke out Fadnavis who is in Russia welcomed Agarwalrsquos commitment and accused the opposition of making negative false and baseless claimsAssuring Agarwal that the state will always remain competitive and extremely businessfriendly the deputy CM said ldquoIt is disappointing that negative false and baseless claims are being spread to gain political mileage This is only to hide their oppositionrsquos incompetence when it was in power till Junerdquohe tweetedldquoI want to ask the opposition leaders who sent back R35 lakh crore refinery from Maharashtra My advice to these leaders is to focus on becoming competent and efficient and not negative and desperaterdquo he addedMumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar asked the government to disclose the necessary documents to prove that the erstwhile MVA government did try to retain the company in Maharashtra He wanted a retired HC judge to probe Aaditya Thackerayrsquos claimsldquoUnfortunately Uddhav Thackerayrsquos Shiv Sena and Aaditya Thackerayrsquos Penguin Sena are bluffing the Marathi Manoos and trying to create a feeling of animosity for the Gujaratisrdquo alleged ShelarlsquoMany projects quit GujaratrsquoSawant alleged that the moving of the project to Dholera will not only harm Maharashtra but the country as well ldquoAccording to the internal report of Vedanta company a comparative study of Talegaon and Dholera was conducted and Dholera was given less preference citing various reasons The decision to move the project has been taken under the pressure of the Central GovernmentrdquoHe said other than ISMC Digital JioPhone moved to Tirupati from Dholera Lockheed Martin Corporation withdrew its solar battery project and Hindustan Construction Company quit a waterfront projectProject wonrsquot come back PawarNCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Thursday that the VedantaFoxconn semiconductor plant should not have gone out of Maharashtra but there was no hope now of the Rs 154lakh crore project coming back to the state after the joint venture company opted for GujaratAddressing a press conference Pawar said the Centrersquos assurance to Maharashtra that it will get a bigger project than the VedantaFoxconn semiconductor plant was akin to trying to ldquoconvince a childrdquo He said it would have been good for the company had the plant come up at Talegaon near Pune which already has an automobile hub close to Chakan