PoliticsKarnataka
M B Patil calls Kumaraswamy's claim that Honda is leaving Karnataka 'baseless'
Karnataka's industries minister says Honda's Narasapura plant makes 10,000 two-wheelers a day and will soon start building electric scooters, a day after the Union minister said the company had dropped its EV project in the state.
Key points
- M B Patil called Kumaraswamy's Honda claim baseless and politically motivated.
- Honda's Narasapura plant makes 10,000 vehicles a day and employs over 7,800 people, he said.
- Patil says Honda will start electric two-wheeler production there in the coming days.
Karnataka’s Large and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil on Sunday hit back at Union Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy, calling his claim that Honda is moving out of the state “baseless and politically motivated”.
Kumaraswamy had asked the state government on Saturday to explain why Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India had, as he put it, decided to drop its proposed electric vehicle project at Narasapura in Kolar district. Patil, in a release from his office, warned that such “irresponsible remarks” could hurt the state’s industrial growth.
He set out the company’s footprint in the state. “Honda has been allotted 135 acres of land in phases at Narasapura in Kolar district since 2011,” Patil said. The plant, making two-wheelers since 2013, turns out 10,000 vehicles a day and employs more than 7,800 people, he said. Honda also runs a 35-acre spare parts warehousing and distribution centre at Adinarayana Hosahalli in Doddaballapura taluk that serves the whole southern region.
Far from leaving, Patil said, Honda plans to begin electric two-wheeler production at Narasapura in the coming days. “There have been no lapses on the part of the state government in its dealings with Honda,” he said, adding that the company had not voiced any unhappiness with Karnataka.
Patil also made it personal. “It is inappropriate for Kumaraswamy, who himself hails from Karnataka,” he said, urging the JD(S) leader to bring more industry to the state instead. “Would he not be undermining the interests of his own state by creating a furore with unfounded claims,” he asked, referring to talk of companies moving to Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Odisha.
The exchange adds to a sharpening feud between Kumaraswamy and the Congress government, which on the same day saw Bengaluru police link the sting video probe to people close to the Union minister.