Indore News: When The Industry Stumbled, He Refused To Step Back
However, the state administration adopted a different procedure; industries were first asked to complete projects and submit applications only afterwards. By the time units could apply, many were already under financial strain. What should have encouraged industrialisation instead pushed several units into default.
Indore News: When The Industry Stumbled, He Refused To Step Back | FP Photo
Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The story of Pithampur’s industrial growth is not only about factories, investment and expansion. It is also about crisis, uncertainty and the people who stood firm when the system failed.
At the centre of that difficult chapter stands CA Gautam Kothari, chairman of Pithampur Audhyogik Sangathan, whose long association with the industrial belt is marked by persistence, intervention and institutional support.
Kothari has seen Pithampur from its early phase of development. In those years, new industries came up under the Centre’s 25% capital subsidy policy, which became a major incentive for industrial units. In 1988, that support was suddenly withdrawn.
Studies and legal records related to industrial incentive disputes show that policy changes around capital subsidy created serious disruption for industries in Madhya Pradesh and triggered prolonged legal conflict.
The real blow, Kothari recalls, came in the gap between policy and implementation. The central provision linked subsidy sanction with loan sanction.
However, the state administration adopted a different procedure; industries were first asked to complete projects and submit applications only afterwards. By the time units could apply, many were already under financial strain. What should have encouraged industrialisation instead pushed several units into default.
It was in this atmosphere of distress that Pithampur Audhyogik Sangathan took shape. The legal fight continued till 2000. Some industries secured favourable decisions, some recovered dues and some were saved from closure. Many others could not survive. Kothari says nearly 300 industries were pushed into immediate difficulty, while the long-term damage claimed around 400 units.
Even today, the association handles not only policy-level battles but also individual industrial problems, from licensing issues to operational disputes. Kothari’s significance lies in that continuity. He did not merely witness Pithampur’s industrial struggle; he remained engaged in it
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