Mangaluru: Minister for Mines and Geology and Dharwad district-in-charge Vinay Kulkarni has taken exception to lack of opportunities to local youths and land losers particularly in industries for which farmers of the district have given land.

Inaugurating a programme organised as part of the Road Show for Vendor Development and Investors Summit 2017 here on Saturday, Mr. Kulkarni said that despite getting land at concessional rates and other incentives, the units run by Tata in Dharwad had failed to provide regular employment to locals.

The Minister also issued a warning that if the company failed to modify its recruitment policy to accommodate more local people, then there was no point in allowing the company to function from Dharwad. He said that since the last five years no regular recruitment of workers was made in the units being run from Dharwad. The Minister said that the recruitment policy of the Tata units at Dharwad was quite bizarre. The youths were taken for a period of 20 months and then their contracts were not renewed. And even for smaller mistakes workers were being fired from service, thus defeating the very purpose of providing land and concessions for setting up industry in the region, he said.

However, he sought to clarify that the State government was not against any industries but only wanted them to contribute towards improving the living standards of the local people. But he also said that if remedial measures were not taken, then he would be forced to stage a protest in front of the company units in Dharwad to get them to shut down their operations. The local management team should take up the issue with their headquarters, he said.

Indirectly criticising the percentage of GST, he said that the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that indirect tax should not exceed 18 %.

President of Karnatak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Ramesh Patil, president of North Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (NKSSIA) Vishwanath Gowdar, Joint Director of District Industries Centre P. Nagesh and others were present.