The AP High Court has questioned whether is it wrong for the state government to give incentives to companies to attract investments? It has suggested that it should be seen how much benefit the state will get from the arrival of companies. The high court took up the hearing on a petition filed challenging the allotment of land to TCS in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.
It expressed the opinion that the government may have allotted land at a nominal price to attract TCS, saying that the state is in the initial stage of development. It is not at what rate it is being allotted, but how much benefit the state will get from the arrival of the company? It recalled that TCS is saying that it will create 12,000 jobs with an investment of Rs 1370 crore.
The High Court commented that they are seeing how Hyderabad and Bangalore are doing with the growth of IT. The Special Government Pleader (SGP) on behalf of the state government told the High Court that 21.16 acres of land is being allotted to Tata Consultancy on lease basis. The petitioner’s claim that the land is being sold is not true. The high court has ordered a counter with full details to be filed.
The High Court has made it clear that no interim orders can be given at this stage as the land allotments will be subject to final orders. Steps are being taken rapidly to start operations of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Visakhapatnam. 2 lakh square feet have already been allotted on a rental basis in Millennium Towers. The government has given the green signal by granting the necessary permissions to start immediate operations here.
When TCS sought land for future needs, it is known that the state government recently allotted 21.16 acres in IT Hill-3 at 99 paise per acre. The 20 acres reserved for TCS’ additional campus in Kapuluppada area were examined earlier. At the same time, the lands allotted for Adani Data Center in Hill-4 were also examined.
Two plots of land belonging to VMRDA in Paradesipalem were also inspected. There is an 80-acre hill in survey number 421 in Shivshakti Nagar. Earlier, VMRDA had auctioned these plots, but as no buyers came forward, they kept them as is. The concerned officials have already stated that these lands were shown for the expansion of TCS campus, but it is clear that not much interest was shown.
