BJP’s next line of attack on TMC: ‘lack of investments’

The remarks from Vijayvargiya came after West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar wrote to Banerjee and once again sought the details of new investments in the last five editions of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS).

In his letter, the Governor said, “There is need to give out details of Rs 12,32,603 crores investments and particularly the Rs 5 lakh crore investment proposals that were stated to be ‘under implementation’ as on February 1, 2019. We are now one-and-half-years therefrom.”

Dhankhar also sought information about the agency or agencies through which the funds were spent, details about the MoUs signed and the investment and jobs promised at the summit since 2015. Earlier, the Governor wrote to state Finance minister Amit Mitra on the matter.

Speaking to the newspaper, state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said, “The amount of money the state government has spent organising these business conclaves is more than the amount of investment the state has received. Since coming to power the TMC government has failed to bring in new and major investments. Name one major business firm which has set up industries here after 2011. Instead, old industries have shut and many left the state. We will highlight the failure of this government to industrialise the state.”

According to the party, the industrialisation issue has always been an Achilles heel for the TMC government.

“The TMC was responsible for driving out Tata Motors from the state following its anti-land acquisition movement in Singur in 2008 when it was in Opposition. Since then no big name made investments in Bengal. Even after coming to power, the TMC government continued to oppose offering Special Economic Zone status to IT companies. Their faulty industrial policies led to the economic slowdown in the state,” said a senior BJP leader.

A senior TMC leader slammed the BJP for its relentless attack against the state government on industrialisation and said the government had made enormous efforts to revitalise the business sector.

“The previous Left Front government left a huge debt burden on the new government. Despite that our chief minister toured across the world to attract investments for Bengal. Through BGBS, industrialists such as Ambani, Adani and others made business pledges, and those are already in process. The BJP is trying to mislead people by sharing wrong information and trying catch fish in rough waters,” said the TMC leader on condition on anonymity.

In last few years, Banerjee has visited Singapore, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Bangladesh to attract investors and other business purposes. Her scheduled visit to China for the same was cancelled in 2018.