Mamata Banerjee wants the Tatas to forget all bitterness of the past and look forward towards investing in Bengal with a fresh mind.
Sudip Bandopadhyay senior Trinamool MP who is currently in Munich with the Bengal Chief Minister on Thursday said Banerjee was game for talks on any kind of investment that would generate jobs in the State.
“let us forget the past bitterness,” Bandopadhyay said underscoring, “Mamata Banerjee is not a vindictive person and she wants the Tatas to invest in the State with an open mind.” Bandopadhyay said that it would be unwise not to forget the bitterness created on account of the Singur movement.
“Future is before us and we have to grab it and both sides have to work in unison towards achieving it.”
Earlier the Chief Minister also invited BMW and the Tatas to invest in the State for which “we have all the infrastructures ready.” She said “land will not be a problem as we have land bank from which we will give you the land. Just give us your choice and we will give you the land.”
Banerjee also said that the State Government had a clear-cut land policy as per which the investor will have to purchase lands from the farmers directly. “We have seen how the BMW has constructed its factory here on 150 acres. We also invite them to Bengal for a big ticket investment.”
Banerjee also said that the Tatas should not concentrate on any particular location (read Singur) but extend their choices to other areas too.
The Tatas were still licking their wounds from a lost law suit in Supreme Court. In a hard hitting order of great consequence the Apex Court earlier month ruled: the acquisition of 1000 acres of Singur land for the Tata Motors by the then Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Government was full of procedural irregularity — and hence illegal.
The Tata Motors — that had already sunk about Rs 2,000 crore in Singur and whose towering factory shed still stood helplessly by the Golden Quadrilateral awaiting demolition — would however make no impromptu commitment save the ones made by the Tata Metalics bosses who undertook to set up a job-oriented skill development centre to train about 1,200 people at IIT Kharagpur.
“We have been told by our acquaintances in Bengal that the State Government is prompt in handling issues and is cooperative too. So we are also looking forward to invest in that State” a senior Tata official who was traveling with the Chief Minister to Munich said.
Meanwhile, on what the insiders termed “positive vibes” wafting over from Munich to Singur the State Government tended to soft-pedal the land reclamation process at the botched Tata Motors sites.
Though about 180 acres have been reclaimed in a matter of a few days and process of reclaiming the rest was on State Power Minister Sobhandeb Chatterjee who visited Singur on Thursday said “the machines of the power plant at the site will be preserved” while another senior minister said the huge Tata Motors shed would not be demolished for the time being “at least till the Chief Minister returns from Munich.”
Sources also said talks were on with the farmers many of whom were willing to see an industry in that area.