Below is the handout circulated at the press
conference held by Dr. Samir Kelekar:
------------------------------------------
Press Conference on the Dona Paula IT park
Dr. Samir Kelekar
Date: March 6 2008
Lack of due diligence of the companies before plot
allocation has led to cases where questions can be
raised whether the promised jobs will come to the
Goans as well as whether the plots will be used for
the intended purpose.
I demand a full inquiry into the following cases as
possibilities of fraud seem obvious in the
following.
1. Allotment to Goa Tech Parks Private Limited:
This company has been alloted a plot even before its
existence. It is a JV of
two real estate companies Unity Realty and
Developers
Limited and BSEL Infrastructure Limited and has been
alloted a plot in the real estate category.
Its certification of incorporation is dated March 12
2007, while I have proof that this company was
allocated a plot on January 5 2007. You can get the
appropriate proof through the Right To Information
processes.
This is illegal and one can only imagine what must
have gone through to
do an allotment of this kind. I demand to see when
this company applied
for a plot, and on what basis was it granted one
before its existence. Any
legal documents of grant to a non-existing company
obviously should become void.
The people of Goa should be told about this.
2. Allotment to Technology Options (India) pvt
ltd:
This company which has the sister and brother-in-law
of the IT minister as directors does not run a call
center in Mumbai as claimed by the IT minister.
A visit to its registered office at C. S. T. Road in
Santa cruz (East) revealed
a chartered accounts' office in the same place. On
inquiries, I was put through to someone who claimed
to
be a director of the company. He mentioned that the
call center that they were running in Mumbai has
been
closed. I suspect that they never ran any BPO, call
center in the first place.
I demand of the Infotech Corporation the details of
the call center that they claimed to run: when and
where it was running, who were the customers, and
their addresses, all invoices raised, what was the
call center doing, who were the employees and their
addresses, and finally why it was closed.
This company has been given 10861 square meters of
land in the area of IT and ITES, an area where 1500
jobs should be created. (It is another matter that
their project report has promised 800 jobs.) I
suspect
this could be a ruise to grab land. The Goan people
need satisfactory answers to the above questions,
failing which the allotment made to them should be
reverted back.
3. Allotment to Ampersand Digimedia ltd:
Ampersand Digimedia is a Mumbai based company
alloted
a plot of 4053 square meters in the area of IT and
ITES on 18 september 2006. This
company claims to develop multimedia software. A
visit
to its registered office at Worli Sea face in
January
2008 revealed a different company in the place. The
person present in the new company mentioned that
Ampersand Digimedia has been closed two years back.
Even a phone call revealed the
same information. Ampersand Digimeida also has all
brothers as its directors which is also a sign of
non-professional management.
I would like to know what due diligence was done to
grant a plot to this company, as also what are the
provisions in the contract to revert back a plot if
the company closes down its office. Further, I
demand
to know what multimedia work this company has done
in
the past, how many employees it had in the past, who
were its customers. This company obviously cannot
create 600 jobs that are meant for the space that
they
have been allocated (they have however promised only
186 jobs in their project report), and hence its
plot
should be reverted back.
I demand an inquiry into this.
4) Possibilities of fraud:
There are many ways of doing a fraud to grab a plot
of
land in the prime land at Dona Paula. Given that a
plot of land of 4000 square meters is available for
Rs. 4600/- per square meter, assuming the market
price
to be Rs. 30,000/- per square meter, the profits to
be
made on a plot
are to the tune of around 12 crores. It is quite
possible that a real estate party can spawn an IT or
ITES company, even show some revenue. To meet the
criteria, the real estate company itself can pass
some
money ( a few lakhs ) to the IT, ITES company and
the
IT, ITES company can claim it as its revenue. A look
at the MCA (ministry of company affairs) filings
would
show a running profitable company.
The company can then sell the plot making a clean
Rs.
12 crores.
Hence, it is important to see what is the nature of
the work that the IT or ITES company is doing, who
are
its customers. Further, if it has to generate 600
jobs, Infotech corporation has to sit with the
management of the company to determine a roadmap for
the company where it will grow year by year so that
it
is capable of generating the amount of jobs that are
needed for the space allocated. In other words, the
project proposal given by the company cannot be a
one
time piece of information, but it should be a live
document whose progress has to be closely monitored.
In the absence of satisfactory progress, there must
be
a warning given and if there is still no progress,
the
plot reverted back.
Otherwise, there is a chance that a company can just
grab the land and run away with it.
5) Land allocated disproporationate to the jobs
promised:
60 square feet are more than enough for an employee
for sitting purposes in an IT or ITES company. I
invite you to Bangalore to show how comfortably
people
can sit in less than 60 square feet. If one adds
conference rooms, cafeteria, toilet space in a very
liberal fashion, 80 to 90 square feet per employee
are more than enough.
The Infotech corporation has given out space around
2 lakh square meters, with 150% FAR, which amounts to
30 lakh square feet, which is enough for 30,000
employees if we count 100 square feet per employee.
The jobs promised are around 12,000 to 15,000. Thus,
the space given per employess is 2 to 2.5 times what
is
generally required. This just shows that the idea is
to give out huge space --- more than what is
necessary.
Conclusion:
The CM has made an assurance that the IT park will
be
scrapped if it is not used for IT purposes. The use
of
the park for IT and ITES purposes is not something
that will be evident only after say 2015. The
signals
can be seen every day. So that huge amount of money
is
not spent by companies as well
as Infotech corporation -- a fact which will make it
difficult to scrap the IT park later, it is
important
that a road map is made for companies that they
achieve certain milestones --- which will give clear
indications whether a company is out to turn its
space
into job creation for IT or something else. And this
has to be begin with due diligence at the time of
allotment itself. Especially, for IT companies, one
needs to check if they are really in the IT business
or are just a front company to grab land. It will be
too late otherwise to take these companies to task.
In the current scenario, an inquiry needs to be done
in all of the above cases.
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