Mamata woos industrialists

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wooed industrialists on Saturday asking them to send emails to her if they face any problems in their projects and lashed out against a 'section' which was giving her government a negative publicity.

“If you have any problem, you can send me email. There will be no problem,” Banerjee told industrialists at a programme and appealed to entrepreneurs to invest in the state.

She also assured small and medium scale industries, as well as handicraft artisans of her support and assistance.

Infrastructure required for setting up new projects was already prepared and the state government would develop industrial belts at places like Haldia, Durgapur, Asansol and Kalyani, she said.

Banerjee alleged that a section of the media was putting her government in poor light and had also belittled the image of West Bengal. "A negative picture of Bengal is being painted. You can find fault in me. But you cannot condemn Bengal's culture this way."

She said under her government about 17,000 new companies had come to West Bengal and about 1,54,000 new jobs have been created and asked opposition parties not to call strikes in the state as it paralysed development.

The state government, the chief minister said, was running pension schemes for artisans over 60 years of age in the handicraft and and village industries sectors who have no other source of income.

Banerjee said artisans from the state are in great demand in the country and outside and the government is planning to make Shantiniketan a big handicrafts hub. "Every district will have at least one handicraft haat (small market) which can be used by artisans as a platform to sell their goods. She added that 68 clusters have been identified for development by the state government, which has also decided to set up rural haats to provide marketing assistance to handicrafts and village industries artisans at Alipurduar, Bishnupur, Purulia and Jhargram. The West Bengal State Handicrafts Expo 2012-13 began on Saturday at Milan Mela and would continue till December 14.