MD says Company was forced to go out of State
Managing director (MD) of Kitex Garments Limited Sabu M. Jacob has said the Group will not make any fresh investments in Kerala.
He was speaking to reporters after returning from Hyderabad here on Sunday. The Telangana government had reached an agreement with the Kerala-based company for an investment of ₹1,000 crore in a garment unit at the Kakatiya Mega Textiles Park in Warangal.
Mr. Jacob, who arrived by a private jet sent by the Telangana government at the Kochi airport before noon, said he was forced to go out of Kerala to make fresh investments. He said he was received ‘royally’ by the Telangana government and the first phase of the Kitex venture would see an investment of ₹1,000 crore.
He said he was not involving himself in a political debate and did not want to counter Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The Kitex Group and Kerala government are at a standoff over what Mr. Jacob alleged were serial raids and inspections on the company premises in June. The company said it was not given prior information about any of these inspections during which factory operations were disrupted and employees were questioned for long durations.
Mr. Jacob said he was also served a notice by the Labour Department, which had found fault with the Kitex company on more than 70 counts.
Before leaving for Hyderabad on Friday, Mr. Jacob said he was not interested in investing in Kerala any more because he was being treated like a trouble-maker. Mr. Sabu and his team were invited to Telangana by Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao, who promised Mr. Sabu all support for the investments in the textiles park.
Mr. Jacob had said earlier that Kitex Garments was withdrawing from plans to invest ₹3,500 crore in an apparel park and three industrial parks in Kerala. These projects would have generated about 35,000 employment, he had said. He also alleged he was being hounded out of Kerala and did not feel his investments would be secure in Kerala.
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