Gowda tries to pacify IT companies

Gowda tries to pacify IT companies
Rediff

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Wednesday said he did not care how information technology companies functioned, but was keen on ensuring accountability on land allotted to them.

"Those who are thrown out of their lands (which are allotted to IT firms) should be given job opportunities; they cannot be allowed to suffer and go begging for food," he said at the inaugural function of Karnataka's premier IT event -- "Bangalore IT.in 2005."

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Gowda, who heads the JD(S), also slammed companies for launching a "whispering campaign" against the Congress-JD(S) coalition government and seeking to create an impression that IT companies were leaving Bangalore.

He, however, said that he was not against IT and would not allow the sector to suffer, but was only seeking accountability on land allotment and utilisation matters, as well as jobs for those displaced.

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"I am not going to minimise the contribution of the IT industry. I am not jealous about your earnings. I am not bothered (about that)," he said.

Gowda's outbursts against the IT sector, which he has openly accused of conspiring to destabilise the government, had last week culminated in the resignation of Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy as the head of Bangalore International Airport Ltd.

The former prime minister had questioned Murthy's contribution to the project, which the technocrat had been heading for the last five years.

Gowda criticised a section of the IT industry for creating a "negative impression" that the coalition government is not giving much importance and priority for solving infrastructural problems.

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He noted that it was when he was at the helm of affairs that the IT industry was given a 10-year tax holiday and the International Tech Park, an IT showpiece of Bangalore, came into being.

The former prime minister also spoke about the positive aspects of IT's growth, like creating wealth in the country, and said he wanted to "salute" the contribution of the IT companies of Bangalore.

He exhorted IT companies to start operations in other cities of the state, saying, "Bangalore has grown enough". "We want to decongest Bangalore."
Gowda flayed "those who are not well disposed towards the coalition government" for starting a whispering campaign that IT sector is moving out of Bangalore but asserted that they will not succeed in destabilising the government.