Make in India week: 15% investments announced fake, alleges NCP

The Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) yesterday claimed that nearly 15 per cent of the total investment of Rs 8 lakh crore announced during the recently held ‘Make in India Week' was fake, as it questioned an MoU signed by the state government for the creation of affordable housing.

Furnishing the MoU signed between Maharashtra government and housing body MCHI-CREDAI during Make in India Week, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the pact to develop 5.69 lakh affordable houses in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) was ‘fake', and as a similar MoU was signed during Congress-NCP rule in 2010.

"The MoU signed between the state housing department and MCHI-CREDAI is completely fake as we had signed the same MoU to develop a similar number of affordable homes with the housing body in 2010, when Ashok Chavan was Chief Minister and Chhagan Bhujbal was his deputy," Malik told reporters.

He added, "The value of this MoU, signed by Principal Secretary of housing department, Shreekant Singh, and MCHI-CREDAI President Dharmesh Jain, is Rs 1.10 lakh crore, which means that around 15 per cent of the Rs 8 lakh crore (investment) announced by the Chief Minister is fake."

Malik further said the MoU signed by Chavan had lapsed in February 2015 without a single brick being laid, and that the government approached the housing body as part of the ‘Make in India' campaign only to give an impetus to the investment announcements.

"The government says over 82 builders are part of MCHI and this project will generate around 7.65 lakh direct jobs. We want to know who these builders are and where will the government get people to buy houses as there is no money in the market," he said.