Kasargod, November 17: After his recent critical remarks of ruling Congress-led UDF, Defence Minister A K Antony Saturday said there is a favourable atmosphere for industrialisation in Kerala and emphasised the need to work unitedly, forgetting party affiliations for development.
"The present political atmosphere is very favourable for industrial development. We should forget party affiliations on the question of Kerala's development. We can debate politics at election time. But in the matter of the state's development, everyone, including the media and political parties, should unitedly work for achieving it", he said.
The minister was speaking after inaugurating the Strategic Electronics Manufacturing Unit of aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at Seethangoli in the district.
On November 14, Antony had stated at a function at BrahMos unit at Thiruvananthapuram that the atmosphere in Kerala was not conducive for bringing defence sector projects and he had received much better cooperation from previous LDF government to bring several projects to Kerala.
Asked about these remarks, he said "the intention was the development of Kerala. What I felt I had said. If you find it wrong, you can ignore', he said.
"None need to misinterpret the remark and create a controversy by bring politics in it", Antony said.
He said the second phase of expansion of the HAL unit would be undertaken in four months and added more such units can be brought into the state if everyone stood together to get it.
Land acquisition for development was a major problem in the country as also in Kerala, he said, adding Kasargod district in northern part of the state was ideal for development as a lot of vacant lands were available.
Antony said employment opportunities are coming down in the Gulf region, where there are over 60 lakh NRIs, as also in U.S.A and Europe "which are facing employment problems."
"In such a scenario, Kerala should have more industries to accommodate youngsters who return to the state," he said.
The minister praised Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty for bringing the project to Kerala and also former Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem for industrial development.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the state had got six defence-related units after Antony took over as Defence Minister and urged him to take steps to take up at the earliest the second phase of expansion of the unit.
He urged the Defence Minister to provide leadership in utilising Kerala's potential.
Kunhalikutty said Kerala is now reaping the benefit of the recently-conducted 'Emerging Kerala' industrial meet at Kochi. "The investment climate in the state is very good," he said.
Kerala government had allotted 200 acres for the unit the foundation stone for which was laid by Antony in 2008.
The Rs 200-crore facility in Kasargod is an extension of the Hyderabad Avionics Division of HAL. The division is engaged in manufacturing a wide variety of electronic equipment in the areas of communication, radar, navigation computers and electronics warfare.
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