While the Kerala government is trying its best to attract private investments to the state and transform it into the land of infinite opportunities, entrepreneurs and industrialists who have already made huge investments say that running an industrial unit in God's Own Country remains a nightmare because of harassment by bureaucrats, government departments and local bodies.

Instead of welcoming and encouraging industrial units, some government bodies such as the Pollution Control Board, Kerala State Electricity Board, Kerala Financial Corporation and gram panchayats try to scuttle their projects and create insurmountable problems, alleged these entrepreneurs.

Kitex Garments Limited managing director Sabu Jacob said that many industrialists, who have set up units based on the assurances given by the Kerala government that it will help industry in all matters, are now regretting that they did so.

"When the industrial unit is in trouble because of the non-cooperation of government departments, instead of responding fast and resolving the problem the same government fails to take any action thereby forcing the owner to close down the company."

"Because of the state government's attitude, Gwalior Rayons and J P Coats closed down," he added.

Emphasising that his own Kitex Group has had enough of the harassment by government officials, he said, "We have now decided not to invest any more in Kerala. We will be setting up our next project at an envisaged investment of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) in Coimbatore and not in Kochi."

Claiming that his Kitex Group provides jobs to 7,000 people in Kerala and is currently the largest private sector employer in the state, he said, "Our garment export unit in Kochi, which annually exports to the tune of Rs 65 crore (Rs 650 million) to US-based clients such as Wal-Mart, Russel Corp, Sarah Lee, J C Penny among others, has been recently stripped of environmental certification by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board."

"This is despite the fact that our unit does not require any PCB approval as chemical processes such as dyeing, bleaching and printing of garments are done in Tiruppur and only the cutting, sewing, embroidery, finishing and packing work is done here."

Alleging that the denial of the PCB certification is politically motivated, Jacob said, "The reason stated in the KSPCB's denial letter is that drainage water from the hostels are polluting the nearby banana plantations. When the hostels, flats and similar complexes don't come under the purview of the KSPCB and do not require its approval to exist, it is ridiculous to deny the certification."

KSPCB member secretary K V Indulal said the environment certification was denied to Kitex after the board received complaints from the nearby residents that Kitex was discharging a major part of its sewage generated in its employees hostel into the Periyar Valley Irrigation Canal.

Refuting this statement, Jacob said, "There is not even an iota of truth in this statement. If what KSPCB now says is true, it should have deputed its officials to inspect our drainage and sewage lines before denying us the certificate."

"They should also have mentioned this reason in the denial letter. The letter does not say anything like that. It only says that drainage water from the hostels are polluting the nearby banana plantations," he said.