Telangana & Tamil Nadu 'lure' investors in bad taste & out of desperation, says Karnataka CM

|HT|

Bengaluru and Karnataka can not be compared with any other state and what Telangana and Tamil Nadu are doing to 'lure' investors away is in bad taste and out of complete desperation, Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Friday. "...what they are doing is not in good taste. We have to invite people to invest by projecting positive aspects of our state. There is no need to vilify the other state for it. I have not called those who have invested in Tamil Nadu and Telangana to come and invest here. That's our strength. What they are doing shows that no one is coming to their states to invest. So they are calling people from here. It's their weakness," the chief minister said. Bommai's comment comes amid concerns over Karnataka's political situation casting a shadow on the industry sector as the state has been embroiled in back-to-back controversies of hijab, halal and azaan. After industrialist Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, IT veteran TV Mohandas Pai also appealed to the chief minister to address Bengaluru's infrastructure concerns. Recently, Telangana IT minister KTR on Twitter extended an open invitation to a startup on Twitter and urged him to come to Hyderabad as it has better infrastructure, both physical and social, KTR said, disparaging Bengaluru.

Tamil Nadu finance minister Palanivel Thiagarajan has also said that his government is ready to welcome companies that want to move out of Karnataka amid the growing tension there.

Terming these attempts as desperation, Bommai said no one can impede the state's progress.

"Let Telangana and Tamil Nadu develop their own states, Karnataka is not against it," the chief minister said adding that in the last three quarters, Karnataka received the highest investments in the country.

Industrialist Mohandas Pai recently tweeted about the traffic and road condition of Bengaluru. "Bengaluru paid second highest IT at 1.69 lcr in 21-22, but we are ignored by Delhi! Our roads are bad, traffic sucks, quality of life down @narendramodi Sir as our PM pl intervene and help," he tweeted in which the chief minister was also tagged. "As rain (last year) continued (long) there was a bit of a problem. Now, there is marked improvement. In the coming one month we will further improve. I will speak to him (Pai) personally. There is no such reason for worry," Bommai said.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)