CHANDIGARH: The Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) has chosen Associated Distilleries, owned by the Chief Minister’s son-in-law, Anup Bish not, as collaborator for setting up a liquor manufacturing unit in preference to the well-known Jagatjit Industries Limited.
The decision was taken by the Project Approval Board of the Haryana Government recently. The Finance Minister, Mange Ram Gupta, presided over the meeting as Bhajan Lal, who happens to be the board chairman, was away in Delhi.
Gupta told ENS that Associated Distilleries had been selected “on merit” and the established procedure had been followed.
The HSIDC has licenses to set up a plant to manufacture Indian made foreign liquor by using inedible potatoes and food grains. As many as 18 companies had applied in response to its enquiries for collaborators; A sub-committee of officials had short-listed four companies. The sub-committee consisted of the Industries Commissioner, Managing Director of the HSIDC, are presentative of the Industrial Development Bank of India, and technical experts from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology of the Punjab Engineering College.
Later, the sub-committee selected Associated Distilleries on the basis of its “experience, marketing capability and modem technology.” Jagatjit Industries was selected as an “alternative collaborator on the basis of its long experience in the business.
Jagatjit Industries had offered to develop the “batch type process” for the project by using its own research and development facilities. The project is estimated to cost about Rs 11 crore and HSIDC will have a stake of 11%.
Bhajan Lal’s son-in-law owns a country liquor plant in Hissar which has been the subject of a controversy because of the release of untreated pollutants.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 30, 1992
