DUBAI SMART CITY SCAM

Here is something I came across. Other than the thoughts of creating a I hate Dubai.com website.... So read this article, its not in the best of English, but you can get an idea of what these guys are petitioning about. So here is a lot of questions for someone who doesnt give a rats. It saddens me.

Email me your thoughts and comments at dubaiscams@gmail.com and I would be happy to post them. As you might have noticed I haven’t given access to everyone, especially the really dum bloggers who are out there just for the sake of getting some importance and traffic to their website.

Lets hear it !!

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http://www.petitiononline.com/SC6813/petition.html Here is the link.

SMART CITY SCAM- OUR LAND NOT FOR SALE - OUR OPEN LETTER TO CM

To: People of Kerala
AN OPEN LETTER TO CHEIF MINISTER FROM A SOFTWARE ENGG ------------------------------------------------------ Dear Chief Minister, This is regarding your efforts to bring Smart City to Kerala and your subsequent press briefings. Its been brought out as if all this is done for us - IT professionals. Could you please make certain things clear?

Why do you talk about Labor camps in Dubai to justify giving land to Dubai Internet City (DIC)? How are they related? Then why are you not talking of the less deprived here? Our Adivasis were cheated time and again citing there is no free land available for them. How then can you say you are giving off 100 acres of land ‘left over’ after Bramapuram project? So it’s just a ploy. You happily ignore the fact that it’s in the very same city where you saw the so-called heaven that you saw the miserable labour camp too. You are just looking for excuses and blames it on us –the IT professionals. We would like to make some things clear.

The exodus of experienced IT professionals is the greatest challenge that any software company faces today. You ask any IT firm they’ll very clearly say attrition is the greatest threat. In the case of IT at least, our professionals are going abroad NOT because they couldn’t get a job here but because they got a job here and was experienced enough to go abroad and earn more. Mr. Chief Minister, you didn’t find any of us in those labour camps. We are going abroad by choice and not because we are forced to.

IT firms have focused on Kerala because we are qualified enough and the labour here is comparatively cheap. Not because you construct a building there. The much-needed infrastructure that of electricity and water should still be provided by our Government. Connectivity is cheap, easy and fast. What else are you looking for from DIC? Building constitutes just 10% of the infrastructure. DIC is not an IT firm. They are into real estate business. HOW can you give them those incentives, which can be given only to IT firms? It cannot even be classified as a private park as private IT parks can only house IT or ITES firms. THEN HOW CAN YOU DEAL WITH THEM AS PER IT POLICY? Do you have any assurance that they’ll use these land ONLY FOR IT OR ITES operations? Any written assurance? Or will you also like your predecessor Mr. Antony as in the case of self-financing colleges come back to us with crocodile tears and say they betrayed me? Or is this a ploy to extend all these facilities to Muthoot group and its private technopolis too? How did you come to this figure of 33300 jobs? How was this projection made? Any project management basics will tell you that the number of resources depends on the work in hand and duration. Have you estimated the work? You are just trying to fool the public again. IT policy to encourage less land utilization says every IT firm that employee 100 people or more per 0.3 acres of land consumed will be given an incentive. And DIC wants 100 acres free. IF 0.3 acres = 100 then 1 acre = 333 then 100 acre = 33300. THIS MIGHT BE THE FIRST DEAL ON EARTH WHERE JOB OPPURTUNITIES ARE DETERMINED BY THE LAND GIVEN FREE. If there is any other arithmetic behind this 33300, then we challenge the government to come up with that. But Mr. CM we now understand why we are in debt. Your calculator sensed your intentions and ditched you .To maintain the density for subsidy the job opportunities should be 33333 not 33300. And also its not just 100 acres its more than 300 acres. You say the deal is because government does not have funds to build the needed infrastructure.

WHY THEN ARE YOU SELLING INFOPARK? It has the entire infrastructure you can ask for. If there is something more required let the government name it. You have 26 companies operating there already. Around 4 lakh built up space constructed at Rs 1600/sq. ft. A monthly income from rent at Rs 16/sq. ft. Why do you throw this up? We don’t say you accepted bribe but you will have to explain why you manipulate and twist facts and favour a foreign firm there by surrendering our interest. 1) You said the deal is between Dubai government and Kerala government. Isn’t this a lie? Has Dubai government assured us 33300 jobs? Can you specify who signed the deal for Dubai government? 2) You cite IT policy to cover up the land deal. How can you deal with DIC with IT policy? IS it an IT Firm? 3) Of the 300 acres gifted, have you at least obtained in writing how much acres will be set-aside for IT? Then will you make that public? 4) Have they informed you that they will be going for residential complex and amusement parks there? If so why do you cite IT job opportunities as a cover up? 5) You say you won the deal even though AP, Karnataka and TN were after this. Do you know that they had an MoU signed with AP long back –in 2003? Have you enquired how many job opportunities that venture has generated? 6) You mentioned a website in your press release-that of Dubai Internet city. Have you noticed that it says only 5,500 employees are working there. How then do you think they will bring 33300 jobs? 7) How did you reach the number 33300? Isn’t it literally baseless? 8) You say since the incentive for IT firms is given off to these real estate dealers, there is no incentive for IT firms operating there. How can a government say that? How can you take allowance for one and give that to another? Is this not corruption? Tomorrow you might say I have taken salary for chief secretary and paid to my maidservant. Does that mean no one, not even the chief secretary can complain? The above clearly shows that you’ve gone out of your way to provide DIC with benefits, which defies all logic. We know you are a veteran in these dealings. But please do spare us. We cannot stand a party to sell off our land. If this is for us, we don’t need this. We need more IT jobs but if you make IT also an industry, which consumes so much land, YOU ARE CONVERTING IT AS ANOTHER INDUSTRY NOT SUITABLE FOR KERALA. Please do rethink. Find out some other ways of making money. Spare us Thanking You, Joseph C Mathew (Technopark -Kerala )
Sincerely,