Despite Singur, Tatas may invest in Bengal
17 Dec 2012 7:22 AM IST
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has perhaps already achieved what she set out to do in the capital on Monday: woo key industrialists to Bengal. The outgoing Chairman of the group, Ratan Tata, said on Sunday that Singur was a ‘great disappointment’ but Tata group may still go to West Bengal.
‘Need not be Tata Motors. We have to wait until the court decides this, the plant is still there. Whether it is Tata Motors or something else,’ he said.
He was asked about his recent statement that some day Tatas will go back to West Bengal considering the fact that Tata Motors had to shift to Gujarat after a bitter experience in Singur. Though the land was forcibly acquited by the CPIM government for setting up a small car plant (The Nano), the agitation launched by the farmers of Singur and Mamata Banerjee catapulted her to power in the 2011 Assembly polls but forced the Tatas to shift the plant to Gujarat.
Meanwhile, West Bengal industries minister Partha Chatterjee said that the state had lined up some big ticket investments worth Rs 11,000 crore from key players like ITC, Matix, SAIL, Essar and so on. ‘ITC alone will invest Rs 3000 crore in Bengal,’ assured Chatterjee. ‘There is a new land allocation policy. We have a land bank but industrialists will have to purchase the land,’ he explained.
An industry conference will take place in Haldia in January 2013 to boost investment in the area, he announced.
Tata, who will step down as Chairman of Tata group on 28 December, said he had a sense of affinity with eastern Indian because it had not partaken in the growth of the rest of the country. However, the Tatas are building a cancer hospital in Kolkata.
COMMON MAN IS ALWAYS BACKDATED: MAMATA
Mamata Banerjee countered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's criticism of those opposing FDI in retail on Sunday, saying she was with the common man who was ‘outdated’.
‘What can we do? We are grassroot-level people, we are the representative of the people. And the common man is always backdated (outdated). I am proud to say we are with the people,’ she told reporters here after addressing the 85th Annual General Meeting of FICCI here, where the Prime Minister made the remarks.
Mamata, whose party has vehemently opposed FDI in multi-brand retail and has quit the ruling UPA alliance on this issue, was responding to Singh's remarks terming those opposing to FDI as being outdated.
Referring to opposition to opening of the retail sector to global supermarkets, Singh said, ‘I am afraid that those who oppose these moves are either ignorant of global realities or are constrained by outdated ideologies.
‘Need not be Tata Motors. We have to wait until the court decides this, the plant is still there. Whether it is Tata Motors or something else,’ he said.
He was asked about his recent statement that some day Tatas will go back to West Bengal considering the fact that Tata Motors had to shift to Gujarat after a bitter experience in Singur. Though the land was forcibly acquited by the CPIM government for setting up a small car plant (The Nano), the agitation launched by the farmers of Singur and Mamata Banerjee catapulted her to power in the 2011 Assembly polls but forced the Tatas to shift the plant to Gujarat.
Meanwhile, West Bengal industries minister Partha Chatterjee said that the state had lined up some big ticket investments worth Rs 11,000 crore from key players like ITC, Matix, SAIL, Essar and so on. ‘ITC alone will invest Rs 3000 crore in Bengal,’ assured Chatterjee. ‘There is a new land allocation policy. We have a land bank but industrialists will have to purchase the land,’ he explained.
An industry conference will take place in Haldia in January 2013 to boost investment in the area, he announced.
Tata, who will step down as Chairman of Tata group on 28 December, said he had a sense of affinity with eastern Indian because it had not partaken in the growth of the rest of the country. However, the Tatas are building a cancer hospital in Kolkata.
COMMON MAN IS ALWAYS BACKDATED: MAMATA
Mamata Banerjee countered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's criticism of those opposing FDI in retail on Sunday, saying she was with the common man who was ‘outdated’.
‘What can we do? We are grassroot-level people, we are the representative of the people. And the common man is always backdated (outdated). I am proud to say we are with the people,’ she told reporters here after addressing the 85th Annual General Meeting of FICCI here, where the Prime Minister made the remarks.
Mamata, whose party has vehemently opposed FDI in multi-brand retail and has quit the ruling UPA alliance on this issue, was responding to Singh's remarks terming those opposing to FDI as being outdated.
Referring to opposition to opening of the retail sector to global supermarkets, Singh said, ‘I am afraid that those who oppose these moves are either ignorant of global realities or are constrained by outdated ideologies.
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