We cannot copy Andhra Pradesh’s methods to invite investment, says Minister

“Some measures adopted by Andhra Pradesh to invite industrial investment seem to lack financial discipline. Karnataka cannot copy such methods,” claimed Minister for Heavy and Medium Industries M.B. Patil in Vijayapura on Sunday (August 30, 2026).

“Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is offering land to industries at one rupee per acre and giving 100% incentives in terms of subsidies and tax exemptions. Just because they are doing that, we cannot copy them. Everything will have to be done with financial discipline,” he said.

He was speaking at the launch of work on the “Guttigedarara Bhavan”, a meeting hall for contractors, during the silver jubilee celebrations of the contractors association.

“We all know that the contractors in the state are suffering as a result of the mistakes of the previous BJP government. The BJP government did not follow financial discipline and started giving work contracts without sufficient budget allocation. That led to a situation where a lot of contractors have large amounts of pending bills. But then, we can not blame them and keep quiet. I am confident that Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and the Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi are making sincere efforts to release the pending bills of contractors, he said.

Satish Jarkiholi said that the BJP government had issued work orders of over Rs 12,000 crore, without budgetary support. “Work began in earnest, but there was no money to pay. That led to a long delay in paying bills to contractors. It is unfortunate that their mistake has put our government and you in a dilemma’’, he told contractors.

“Karnataka followed a system of paying bills to contractors once every three months. But the BJP government started sanctioning works in an unscientific manner without budgetary support,” he said.

The CM held an important meeting with officers about settlement of outstanding bills. He has assured that all bills would be paid soon. Smaller contractors will be paid first,’’ he said.

Earlier, there was a budget of Rs one lakh for filling potholes. But now, we are releasing grants based on estimates. Work on filling 90 percent of potholes is nearly over. We have some solutions for the problems of traffic congestion and road safety challenges on national highways’’, he said.

He said the state government had also decided to extend the license period of contractors to 10 years.

Shri Sugnanand Mahaswami C.R. Roodagi, President of the Vijayapura District Unit of the Contractors Association, MLA Vitthal Katakadhond, former MLA Raju Alagurana, and others were present.