Samsung plans unit in Hardwar

Company to make colour TVs, ACs in Uttaranchal

Samsung India Electronics Ltd is planning to set up a manufacturing unit in Uttaranchal.

The new unit, to be set up with an investment of Rs 50 crore, will be established on around 30 acres of land in the Integrated Industrial Estate of the Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Hardwar. With this, Uttaranchal would become a major production base for Samsung in India, an official release said here today,

After a meeting with Chief Minister ND Tiwari; Young Bok Yoo, director (manufacturing), Samsung India, said the proposed unit would be an integrated manufacturing plant for colour television, air conditioner, washing machine and other home appliances.

Tiwari said: "We are proud that Samsung is coming to the state. We will like to see the company making Uttaranchal its major base."

Parag Gupta, managing director of SIDCUL, said all facilities were being provided to the entrepreneurs coming to the state. Almost all major industrial houses like LG, Videocon, Lexus, Marico, Britannia, Parle, Dabur, Atlas and Anchor, were setting up bases in the state, Gupta added.

Videocon has also expressed interest in setting up a manufacturing unit in Uttaranchal. "An official meeting with the state government will be held soon," Gupta told Business Standard.

Infotech dept probe: Uttaranchal Lokayukta Justice SHA Raza has said he will hold an inquiry into an alleged multi-crore scandal in the state information technology department.

"I have received a complaint regarding some irregularities in the infotech department," Raza said following a complaint filed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), alleging that the department purchased expensive and non-required items by giving orders to non-professional and incompetent firms violating all official norms.

The payment to the tune of crores of rupees was made in advance to these firms without proper technical inspection and without delivery and installation of equipments like information kiosk at the Ardh Kumbh mela site at Hardwar, according to the complaint.

Nearly, 32 infotech kiosks were proposed in Hardwar, where the Ardh Kumbh mela began on January 26. "But no kiosk has been installed so far and the department seems to be least bothered about their delivery that doubted the integrity of the infotech secretary," the NCP said.

According to the NCP, without the Cabinet's permission, Rs 4.70 crore was diverted from the fund for the community information centre to these firms.

The same process was adopted for purchasing interactive voice response systems (IVRS) worth Rs 12 lakh and servers worth Rs 8 lakh, it said.

For the purchase of bandwidth, the department issued order worth Rs 36 lakh a year. while the state-owned BSNL or MIT could have done it at much lower cost or free of cost, it said.

Similarly, the order of portal development at the cost of Rs One Cr is very high while central government agencies like National Informatics Centre have done it at a very low cost of Rs 1.20 Lakh.