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Kitex Garments, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of kids apparel company MD Sabu Jacob stated that they are withdrawing from a Rs 3500 crore worth project in collaboration with the state government. He made it clear that they are withdrawing the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the Kerala government at the 'Ascend Global Investors Meet' in Kochi in January 2020. The plan was to open an apparel park in Kochi and establish industry parks at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Palakkad.

"We have already acquired 30 acres of land for the apparel park at Kizhakkambalam in Kochi. The project report has also been completed and the project would have provided jobs for 20,000 people. The three industrial parks were envisaged to promote start-ups providing all infrastructural facilities. Each of these parks would have created 5,000 job opportunities. The decision to scrap the project
has been taken as I am fed up with the continuous harassment at the hands of the authorities. Whoever invests in Kerala will lose peace of mind and will be driven to suicide," said Sabu M Jacob, chairman and managing director of Kitex group.

According to Sabu, 11 teams of officers from various departments have raided the company during the past one month. Departments of labour, factories and boilers and even a team led by the district collector conducted a search on the premises.

“On Tuesday, it was the turn of the pollution control board. Each team has 40 to 50 officers and searches every nook and corner of the company. They grill employees for hours but do not reveal what violations they have found. The Kitex factory has been functioning here for the past 26 years and we have 11,000 employees. They arrive with a huge team violating Covid protocols and bring camera teams of online media,” he said.

"While our neighbouring states give a red carpet welcome to investors, the Kerala government treats them as traitors. They are branded as bourgeoisie, exploiters, encroachers, capitalists and criminals and humiliated in public," said Sabu.

He said other states are providing free land, building, water, power and tax holiday for 10 years to investors. "There are states that provide the PF and ESI share of the employees. Some states even offer Rs 5,000 salary for the employees for five years. We don't demand any benefits from the government. At least they can stop harassing us. If the situation continues, Kerala will turn into a graveyard of industries," said Sabu.

Asked whether the harassment was because of the growth of Twenty20, the corporate-led non-profit organisation that rules Kizhakkambalam panchayat, Sabu said Kitex has been facing harassment for decades.

“It is difficult to continue operating even the existing industrial units within Kerala – during the last one month,11 times the official conducted surprise inspections in

our premises. Forty to fifty officials come down in ten or fifteen vehicles and storm into each floor of the buildings and question the workers, including the women, and take down their name, address and phone numbers.Each time, they spend three or four hours to question three hundred to four hundred people, but they haven’t told us yet why they are conducting the inspection or what they have found out,” Jacob said in a media statement.

Kerala’s rank in Ease of Doing Business is 28th, out of the 29 states in the country, Jacob highlighted. It is very difficult to continue Business in kerala because kerala is not business frindly state . “The only other state lagging behind Kerala is Tripura and it is evident from this fact that how far Kerala is business-friendly. States which had been traditionally lagging behind like Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Orissa and Jharkhand had improved their rankings. UP which was far behind in the ankings has come to the second place, emerging as a hot destination for investors,” he added.

“During the 1970s and 1980s, it was the trade unions that killed the industries in Kerala, but now, it is the pseudo--environmentalists, bureaucrats and politicians who are killing the industry now. They will try to scare away thosewho won’t yield to their interests,” Jacob alleged in his media statement.