Extortion calls made investor drop Rs 6,000 cr Maha plan last yr: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said a businessman who wanted to invest Rs 6,000 crore in the state shifted his project to Karnataka after receiving threats and extortion calls last year.

Fadnavis, who heads the Home Ministry in the Eknath Shinde government which came to power last June, also directed the police to take strict action against those harassing industries.

Speaking at an event in Pune on Saturday, the deputy CM appealed to leaders not to bring politics into the industrial sector and warned of strict action against those minting money in the garb of backing labour issues.

“I feel bad to say that an investor met me in the afternoon and said he wanted to invest Rs 6,000 crore here (Maharashtra) a year ago, but shifted it to Karnataka after receiving threat and extortion calls,” he said.

“If this situation prevails, the state’s youth will not get jobs. This is why such tendencies (harassment of industries, and business persons) should be crushed. I have directed police to take stringent action against such trouble-making elements without thinking about party, organisation, community, religion etc,” Fadnavis said.

The noose has to be tightened around such elements, and action would be taken against police if they fail to act, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader added.

“Investors are coming to Maharashtra in a big way as there is a huge pool of human resources. I would urge all leaders to not bring politics into industries. Labourers should get protection but if some political leader is trying to use the shoulders of labourers to mint money, I will not shy away from taking action,” he said.

Pune is the second growth engine of the state (after Mumbai) and the state government will pay complete attention to the region, he said.

The Shinde-Fadnavis coalition took charge of the state after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray collapsed in June last year.

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