Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

HM Sells Today, TM Tomorrow

Posted : August 18, 2006 at 10:06 pm [IST]

Some months ago, Shikhar asked me if I knew that HM (Hindustan Motors) is selling its surplus land. He thought I would know it with my HM background. Shikhar, a fellow IITian, after selling his foundry keeps himself engaged in share business. As he confessed once he transactions go in lacs in a month. I joke with him, ‘at long last you are back in your real profession’. I didn’t pay much attention to what Shikhar told. But almost the same time my friend Arora who also plays with shares though in much smaller manner asked me the same question. It was he who informed that as per market information HM would sell its surplus land, so the price of its share is soaring that was earlier in single digit.

When the news of Tata Motors buying 1000 acres of agriculture land in Singur appeared I wrote suggesting why not Tatas buy HM’s land or why not CPM government of WB facilitates HM handing over the land to Tatas avoiding the sell of agriculture land at Singur for which there was resistance.

But today almost all newspapers carried the news: Hindustan Motors (HM) plans to sell 314 acres of excess land (of the total of 740 acres) at its Uttarpara plant in West Bengal. And I again suggest that the land must go Tata, Tata must build its plant as multistoried assembly plant in that land, and avoid displacing Singur’s farmers and wasting farmland for industrial purposes. HM will be left with plenty of land to have its auto component business here as well as Pithampur where again it owns a huge amount of land for its engine and transmission plant. HM, in late forties or early fifties would have acquired that land at Hind Motor (Uttarpara) at almost no price. HM was to earn profit from auto business. It is unethical for them to earn huge money from the government land in real sense.

I don’t know why can’t pro-people Leftists government of today understand this. HM had never run the plant in professional manner, and so it neither earned any profit not it gave any dividend to its shareholders. Birla made money from other sales and means.

However, it was only due to HM that the locality has developed. But I have strong opinion against the way these corporate houses all over the country grab huge amount of land at cheap price from the government and ultimately take business advantages of the land by selling it. What is the guarantee that TM (Tata Motors) will not do that if the business of Rs 1-lac car fails?

- Indra

Category: Government Policy/Administration |