Letters: Squatter tactics

This refers to the report "Lakshmi Mittal hangs up on Odihsa" (August 6). It comes as a shock that the Mittals were not fully committed to the Odisha project because their other two projects were better located. This is squatter tactics; sign multiple memorandums of understanding with different state governments and then pick and choose. This would have been fine if the industrialist didn't want land, water, transport linkage, construction power and licences for coal and iron ore from the government. Even new-age industries such as information technology are not immune from this desire for state goodies. Infosys, after having got the land, also wants the Bengal government to give special economic zones (SEZs) or SEZ-like breaks, and the central government to give income tax breaks. Infosys and Tatas' refusal to hand back the land (against compensation), even when the Bengal government has made its position clear about SEZs and forceful land eviction, does not befit their professed ethical standards.

P Datta Kolkata

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