West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday praised the Gujarat government for the “progress” the state has made. “Gujarat has been nurtured and it is progressing,” said Banerjee. Addressing captains of industry at the 85th annual general meeting (AGM) of Ficci, she cautioned them from comparing Gujarat with Bengal.
“Bengal has not been nurtured. We are dealing with the legacy of a (Left Front) government of 35 years,” she said. Venting her ire at the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, of which her party the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was part of till a few months ago, she questioned how the Centre allowed the previous government to incur such massive debts. “Bengal is among the most debt ridden states in India,” she said.
Inviting businessmen to invest in the state, Banerjee promised that land for industry has been identified, labour is cheap, and “to increase working capacity is our mission”.
Trying to distinguish her from other politicians, she said, “There are good politicians, bad politicians and “the dubious goody-goody types”.
In an impassioned plea to industry leaders in the capital, the West Bengal CM said that former Ficci frontman, Amit Mitra, who is now the finance minister of West Bengal, has been guiding the economic policy in her state. “I told Amitda, you are a Ficci person. You prepare my manifesto and then join me,” said Banerjee. She claimed that 99 per cent of the commitments that she had made to the people have been fulfilled in the last one-and-a-half years of her rule.
“Bengal is No. 1 from the small scale industry’s view”, she said, adding that the state had an impressive GDP growth of 6.94 per cent, while India’s GDP was at 5.5 per cent.
Giving a glimpse of the plans that she has envisaged for the state, Banerjee spoke of the tourism prospects in West Bengal. “Sundarbans can have an African Safari, Ganga Sagar can have a beach like Goa. You can set up hotels and spas there,” she said.
Attempting to alleviate the “misconceptions” about the state’s land policy for industry, she said the government had simplified it. She said, “Earlier, my industrial policy ran into 99 pages. Now, it has been cut down to size to just seven pages.”
Banerjee said that industry can only be set up “with peaceful means; with co existence of people and industry”. “You cannot acquire land forcibly and then fire at the people. That will not work,” she cautioned. She said West Bengal has identified “large tracts of land for industry”.
Speaking at the Ficci AGM, Naina Lal Kidwai, country head of HSBC India, extolled Banerjee for the “transparency” in her approach.
Sushma Swaraj, leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, who spoke at the Ficci AGM, took potshots at Banerjee, saying the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill is stuck due to TMC’s opposition but the BJP is blamed for it.
“When Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister, he had invited L K Advani, Arun Jaitley and me for discussion on the pension Bill. We wanted certain changes and had assured the former finance minister that the BJP would support the Bill. Yet, the Bill is pending because earlier, the TMC was blocking it. The Opposition should not be blamed for it,” said Swaraj.
Swaraj dismissed the allegations made by the UPA that the Opposition was not letting important financial Bills to be cleared in Parliament. She said that internal contradictions in the Union government was responsible for the delay in Bills being passed.
She said the BJP is ready to support government on PFRDA Bill, but wants major changes in the Banking and Insurance Bills.
“Prime Minister always blames coalition compulsions for delay in reform Bills, when BJP was in power till 2004, NDA (National Democratic Alliance) was a coalition of 24 parties and yet we managed to run the government successfully. The problem is we have a Prime Minister but he is not a leader. The PM is not a leader of his own party,” Swaraj added.
