Industrialists have to look beyond “cheap labour”, and perform a “national duty” by not giving any jobs to illegal Bangladeshi migrants, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday. Addressing a press conference here after meeting representatives of India Inc, including from the Tatas, Adani Group and Mahindra, Sarma regretted that Indian businessmen are hiring middlemen to get cheap labour from Bangladesh, where textile units are shutting down.
“Who gets the cheap labour into India? It is our own industry”, he said adding, it is a national duty not to encourage the hiring of illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
“If Bangaldeshis get employment, people will keep coming. Our industry, our trade, and business have to resolve not to give any jobs to Bangladeshis where will they come? If we have to strike, we have to strike at the roots,” the Chief Minister said.
He said simple enquiries would reveal that the Bangladeshi workers are coming to India after closer of textile units in the neighbouring country.
When asked if the issue featured during his discussions with industry captains over the weekend, Sarma said there is no need to “re-emphasise” an issue on which Assam has been fighting since 1979.
The northeastern state is looking at investment commitments of Rs 1 lakh crore from the central government and entities allied with it over a five-year horizon at the upcoming “Advantage Assam 2.0” investment summit to be held in Guwahati next month, he said.
This will be in addition to the over Rs 1 lakh crore of projects in the roads and railways sectors underway in the state, he added.
Attracting investments in sectors such as tourism, semiconductors and defence is the other focus area of the summit to be held on February 25-26, he said.
He said the Tata group’s mega Rs 27,000-crore investment for a semiconductor assembly plant is on schedule, and the first phase will be inaugurated in either November or December this year.
Apart from that, the Tatas have also evinced interest in setting up a 500 MW solar capacity in the state, he said, adding that an industrial policy is in the works where fallow land being held by tea estates can be converted into solar power parks.
