Central ministers praise Mamata, assure full support in development

West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government on Friday came in for praise from union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, while two other central ministers assured her full support in carrying out development initiatives.

"Bengal has emerged as an investment hub in recent years. It is back on the investment map after decades of unfortunate degradation of investment climate here," said Goyal.

He also said a "significant paradigm shift" was evident in the way investment was being attracted by the state in last few years.

Asserting that political ideology will not come in way of the states or country's development, Goyal thanked Banerjee for her Trinamool Congress' support to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.

Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari assured her "total support from our side".

"As far as our government is concerned, we will support you from our side, for development and progress of West Bengal.

"I am with you, our party, our government, we will support you. Don't bother, don't hesitate.

Earlier, union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the central government would stand by the state and work with it hand in hand to restore its lost glory.

"If Bengal follows a policy which is investment and business friendly, I have not the least of doubts, that the original glory which belonged to the state can always be restored," he said.

He also said that issues pending with the Bengal government were attended "extremely expeditiously" so that the industrial projects in the state can be expatiated.

"I have come here assure the Bengal, all policy initiatives, it is going to take for the industrial growth of West Bengal, central government, as a part of its constitutional obligation, and in our policy interest of making eastern India grow faster, will stand strongly and work hand in hand with the state not only to ensure that investments comes onto the state, but growth rate in this part of the country is much faster," said Jaitley.

Congratulating the Banerjee government for summit, he said the continuous organising of such summits add to the confidence of the investors.

"The fact that this summit continuously keep happening add to the confidence of the investors that this is now the new policy direction that government of Bengal is to follow," added Jaitley.

Besides four union ministers including Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, Delhi Chief Ministe Arvind Kejriwal and Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, a host of industrialists including the likes of Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Amabani, Adi Godrej of the Godrej group, and ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar attended the summit.