Bhubaneswar:TheBiju Janata Dal (BJD) has alleged that industrial houses, that had earlier signed agreements with the state government to set up their units in Odisha, are now leaving the state one after another. 

According to the Opposition party, semiconductor company SRAM & MRAM, which had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with then BJD government in 2023, has now signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh Government, making it clear that the company will not set up its plant in Odisha.

BJD MLA Tusharkanti Behera stated that SRAM & MRAM had signed an MoU with the BJD government on March 29, 2023, proposing an investment of Rs 30,000 crore. Around 700 acres of land in Chhatrapur area of Ganjam district had been identified for this project. However, the company has now signed an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up the plant in the neighbouring state, he claimed.

Behera further claimed that companies like JSW EV and Arcelor Mittal, which had signed agreements with the BJD government, have opted to sign new agreements with Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh respectively.

“The state government keeps claiming that many companies are showing interest in investing in Odisha, but the reality is that these companies are leaving the state one after another. The BJP government's vision of making Odisha an industrially prosperous state has failed to yield any result,” said Behera.

Senior BJD leader and former Minister Ashok Chandra Panda pointed out that the Science and Technology Minister Krushna Chandra Patra recently announced the establishment of a Science City in Khordha, but this plan was originally conceptualized and initiated during the tenure of BJD government in Odisha.

“In the Barunei area near Khordha, 50 acres of land had already been allocated by the BJD government for the Science City project. Similarly, the decision to establish Science Parks-cum-Planetariums in all 30 districts of the state had been taken by the BJD government. Each of these projects was supposed to come up on 5 acres of land with an expenditure of around R 6.5 crore,” Panda said.