• Plea to end menace of residential layouts in industrial areas
• Mysore Industries Association felicitates CII Karnataka Chairman Dr. N. Muthukumar

Mysuru: The demand of the Mysore Industries Association (MIA) to establish a Skill Development Centre in the city is soon to be met and the State Government is going to give its approval shortly as the blueprint for the building and the place have already been finalised, said former MLA and MIA President Vasu.

He was speaking at a function organised to felicitate to Dr. N. Muthukumar, Chairman, CII Karnataka and President-cum-whole time Director, Automotive Axles Limited, by the MIA at Rani Bahadur Auditorium in city this morning.

Vasu said that the problems faced by the industries are unending and hence for the development to happen, industries must have an aggressive approach and also be effective in running the units.

Lauding the efforts of Dr. Muthukumar, he said that the general impression among people is that industrialists do not have the interest of the society at heart and their only interest is to make money. However, Muthukumar in his stint as CII Chairman, Mysuru Chapter showed the humane side of the industrialists by involving himself in social work.

He was instrumental in constructing India’s first green toilet atop Chamundi Hill and women’s toilets at Mysore Palace, development of Thippayyana Kere by utilising Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds effectively. Besides, he also stood for the cause of education, health and City’s cleanliness, said Vasu.

Vasu warned that Mysuru should not go the Bengaluru way as a number of housing projects are coming up on industrial layouts like it is happening in Bengaluru. This move is causing lot of health problems to people residing in such houses and it should be put to stop immediately. “A memorandum in this regard has been submitted to the Government,” he added.

“Even though the number of engineers coming out of colleges is high the ratio of them entering the job market is not matching. This will affect the development and the industries will lag behind. This will have a cascading effect as they will not be able to pay taxes properly, which in turn will lead to government not being able to provide proper facilities,” he lamented.

Star of Mysore Editor-in-Chief K.B. Ganapathy, who felicitated Dr. Muthukumar, said it was difficult to find people like D.Devaraja Urs, the former Chief Minister who had commitment and concern for the people. He is remembered not only for the Land Reforms he implemented but also for the encouragement he gave to the industries.

“There are 33 crore Gods in this country, it is said and probably because of the grace of all those Gods that I became a successful entrepreneur. But looking at the political scenario in the State today, a party with 104 or with 78 MLAs could not come to power. However, a party with just 37 MLAs is holding the reins and it must be due to the grace of 33 crore Gods,” he said in a lighter vein.

Ganapathy lauded the efforts of Dr. Muthukumar for his contributions to the city.

Former Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru District D. Randeep said that Mysuru had become the model for utilising CSR funds during his tenure as there was an understanding between the District Administration and CII, Mysuru Chapter to take up some social work.

Dr. Muthukumar, replying to the felicitation, said that Mysuru had definitely a industry-friendly atmosphere and hoped that many capital-intensive industries would be set up in city soon. This is the golden period for young industrialists to come forward and set up new industries and thus generate employment, he said.

Earlier, MIA Vice-President Umesh K. Shenoy welcomed, General Secretary O.D. Sathyendra proposed a vote of thanks and Secretary Suresh Kumar Jain moderated the programme The students of RUDSET rendered the invocation.