Ready to bat for industry with a straight bat: Mamata

She asserted: “I am ready to bat for the industry. And when I bat,I do it with a straight bat.”

Banerjee said the state will not go for forcible land grabbing.

She said the state offers the industry cheap labour,social infrastructure,natural resources,rivers and forest. “Darjeeling,which burnt earlier,is peaceful now and Junglemahal which was bleeding is smiling and happy. So come and join,” she told the industrialists.

Assuring the industrialists of flexibility in the government’s approach,Banerjee she there was no dearth of land in the state. “We are preparing a land bank and we have prepared a land policy,” she added.

“The cabinet committee made specially for the purpose has cleared all the seven proposals it has received,” she said.

“To simplify the matters,a 99-page proforma for new industrial projects has been reduced to just 7 pages and the clearance time has been reduced from 317 days to just 15 days,” Banerjee told the industrialists.

She further said the state offered opportunities in the fields like education,health care,tea,tourism and infrastructure,a lots of areas.

The Chief Minister,in an obvious reference to AMRI fire in which six of its directors have been arrested and the FICCI has pleaded for their release,she said she would not interfere in the process of justice.

She said some people were spreading “bad rumours” about the state.

Around 30 industrial houses have set up stalls at the exhibition and the industrialists who attended the summit included Sajjan Jindal MD of JSW Steel,ITC chairman Y Deveshwar,Rajeev Singh,vice-chairman of DLF,Sanjib Goenka of RPG enterprises and Harsh Neotia.