'Review projects every 15 days'

TV Mohandas Pai | chairman, Manipal Global Education Services
The government has ignored the IT sector for the last two-and-a-half years.
The industry that has created the highest number of jobs is treated shabbily. Every time there is an issue, the CM and the concerned ministers have assured the industry that things would be set right.
But even after the CM issues directions, the departments don’t act on them.Though we have a chief minister who is progressive and growth-oriented, the bureaucracy should rise to the occasion too. There is a strange lethargy in the departments. In no other state would it take so much effort to get things going. The gap between the government and industry has widened.
When Dharam Singh was the CM, he constituted a high level committee under the chief secretary and industry representatives that would review the progress of the projects once in every 15 days. In the interest of the industry , the CM should set up a similar committee to monitor the progress of projects once every fortnight. We are hoping that things would change for the better. In my experience with an IT SEZ project in Mangalore, for 10 years we asked the government to expand the road, but nothing happened. But we are hopeful that the CM would assure the industry and personally review the projects once in 15 days to bring projects up to speed.
As told to Shilpa Phadnis