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CAG flags misuse of IT Park land in MP, finds storehouse and non-tech related units on subsidised plots

BHOPAL: An audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has uncovered alleged misuse of land leased in the IT Parks of Bhopal and Jabalpur. These plots, meant for information technology and allied firms, were found to house a nursing college, a medicine storehouse, and units manufacturing electric equipment and water-pump starters. The audit, carried out in June 2023 across IT Parks in Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur, showed that 11 out of 20 completed units were engaged in activities inconsistent with those mentioned in their lease deeds. The findings relate to the Shivraj Singh Chouhan period. According to the CAG report tabled in the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha on Thursday, the MP State Electronic Development Corporation Limited (MPSEDC), the agency responsible for developing and promoting IT Parks, didnt act against the lessees/firms. Instead, it supported the 11 firms by paying them Rs 3.96 crore as land subsidy and Rs 61.44 lakh as other incentives/subsidies. One firm that received 0.87 acres in the Jabalpur IT Park in June 2017 for running a BPO-Call Centre, IT Training Centre, and Data Processing Centre, was operating a nursing college, even though MPSEDC had paid a subsidy of Rs 53.36 lakh to the firm. Another firm allotted land to manufacture electronic equipment, and software was using its building to store medicines, after already receiving Rs 15.78 lakh land subsidy. In Bhopal, a firm that was allotted two acres in May 2018 for manufacturing LED lights and electronic products was only assembling components, not manufacturing them. It had been paid a subsidy of Rs 165.4 lakh. The audit also noted severe underperformance: 101 firms allotted 123 plots and expected to create 6,536 jobs by 2023, but had created only 96 jobs. Construction hadnt even started in 84 cases. Four firms recorded as functional were actually locked. Additionally, 13.57 acres in Bhopal and Indore IT Parks were encroached.