'Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation owned by govt'

Kolkata: The state government once again reiterated on Saturday that the Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation is totally owned by it and is not at all a private entity.

"If anyone claims that it (Biswa Bangla) is a private company, it is wrong. It is a government company," Rajiva Sinha, state additional chief secretary MSME and textile told reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna with state home secretary Atri Bhattacharya by his side.

Sinha's statements came in the wake of newly-inducted BJP leader Mukul Roy's claim at a public meeting on Friday that Biswa Bangla is not a government entity but a private company owned by Abhishek Banerjee, national president of Trinamool Youth Congress and nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Sinha made it clear that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had created the Biswa Bangla logo and transferred it to the state government. "She is the creator and we are the user of the logo. Any department of the state government can use it," he said.

The agreement in this regard was made on December 2014 and Sinha happens to be one of the three directors of the company. "Biswa Bangla is a 100 percent government-owned company. It was registered in 2014. It has three directors who are government employees. It has two non-executive directors, who are private persons nominated by the government," Sinha said.

It is learnt that industrialist Rudra Chatterjee and Harsh Neotia are two non-executive directors of Biswa Bangla Corporation. On being questioned about Roy's claims and the papers he had shown in the meeting, Sinha said: "In 2014, Abhishek Banerjee applied for the registration of the logo of Biswa Bangla. Later it was withdrawn and government registered the logo in its own name."

He added that when the government had approached the registry of trade marks, the authorities had said that two other applications were also submitted for it. "Subsequently Abhishek Banerjee had withdrawn the two applications and the registration authority accepted it," he said.

He showed a paper showing that a company named CJ Associates that has its office at Kiron Shankar Roy Road has withdrawn its application in this regard on June 11, 2014.

Home Secretary Atri Bhattacharya further clarified that Biswa Bangla is not only a corporation or a logo. "It is a brand for the state," he said.

Bhattacharya had said on Friday that 'Biswa Bangla' brand and logo are registered in the name of the state government for use in many capacities.