The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday refuted reports that South Korean auto major Kia Motors was seeking to relocate its car manufacturing plant from Anantapuramu district to neighbouring Tamil Nadu with ministers blaming "vested interests" behind the "rumour-mongering."
The AP administration said the state and the auto major were continuing their partnership.
"Kia Motors and Andhra Pradesh are continuing their strong partnership with Kia planning to ramp up their production capacity in the state from 2 lakh to 3 lakh units per annum by the end of this year or earlier," Industries Special Chief Secretary Rajat Bhargava said.
The AP government enjoyed a cordial relationship with Tamil Nadu.
"The Principal Secretary to Government, Industries Department of Tamil Nadu, has conveyed that they are not in talks with Kia Motors and that there were no discussions between the two parties in this regard," Bhargava added in a statement.
Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh, however, lambasted the YSR Congress government and alleged the investment climate in the state has been totally vitiated in the last eight months driving prospective investors away, pushing the future of unemployed youths into jeopardy.
Some bureaucrats said the reports "though baseless" had done "enough damage" to the investment climate as well as the state's image as a preferred destination.
Kia had opened its first Indian plant in Anantapuramu district only in December last year.
"Vested interests are behind creating rumour-mongering and trying to divert attention from the industrial progress the state is making," AP Industries Minister Mekapati Gowtham Reddy said in a statement.
"After the online reports came to my notice, I spoke to Kia Motors' representatives and they too expressed shock as to how such baseless rumours were being circulated in the online social media platforms in the very first place," he added.
Terming the reports false, Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath said action needs to be taken against those circulating such fake news.
"It is very damaging that such irresponsible reports are being circulated in a section of the media and the social media to mislead the people.
Kia management has categorically refuted the reports," Rajendranath said in another statement.
While Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu said Kia was trying to leave the state unable to bear the the ruling YSRC leadership "harassment," Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan slammed the government's "lopsided" polices.
The TDP chief alleged that the state lost Rs 1.80 lakh crore worth industrial investments ever since the Jagan Mohan Reddy government came to power in May last year.
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