By PTI
KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday called upon the Mamata Banerjee government to come out with a white paper on Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) with details of investments attracted by the state through those programmes.
Expressing concern at the alleged lack of response from the then state finance minister on the information sought by him over a year ago on the actual investments that West Bengal has received as a result of five editions of BGBS, the governor alleged that ground reality belies the claims of their “resounding success”.
The state government is preparing to hold another edition of BGBS in April 2022, after a hiatus of two years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Call upon @MamataOfficial to come out with a WHITE PAPER #BGBS so that information is available in transparent and accountable manner,” Dhankhar tweeted.
Asserting that the rule of law, respect for human rights and democratic values are imperative for investments, Dhankhar said much needs to be done on these fronts.
“It is our obligation that we subscribe to sanctity of facts and not dictate actions by mere optics of advertisements and statements,” he said in the Twitter post.
Dhankhar was requested by the West Bengal government to promote the state as an industrial destination and he has also agreed to travel overseas for the purpose, a senior official said on Monday.
The Mamata Banerjee administration has been organising BGBS since 2015 to attract investments to the state.
In a letter to the chief minister in August last year, the governor said he had sought information on the five editions of the BGBS first from the departmental secretary and then from the finance minister but did not get it.
“Surely, their stance is far distanced from transparency in government and also not in consonance with your recent assertion that ‘Our government works with complete transparency and there are financial clearances and regular audit’,” he wrote in the letter dated August 25, 2020.
Dhankhar wrote that he had sought details of investments and jobs created in the state owing to the investment proposals and those claimed to be under implementation.
The then finance minister Amit Mitra had claimed that the state had received proposals worth over Rs 12.32 lakh crore at the business summits between 2015 and 2019 and had generated 28 lakh jobs.
The chief minister had said in the Assembly last year that 50 per cent of the investment proposals that were received in the five editions of BGBS are already in the process of implementation.
Opposition parties had also demanded publication of a white paper on the actual investment that came from the summit.
The last business summit was held in February 2019.
During that edition, Banerjee had announced that it would be a biennial affair.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday came down heavily on the BJP for “being busy in pinching” the TMC government and running down its acheivements but failing to get a single rupee allocated to the state.
She said the common man in the state are being forced by BJP to face extreme hardship by the fuel price spiral which has turned its “achhe din promise to bure din”.
“Some people (in BJP) are busy in piching the TMC government and running down its acheivements from morning to evening. But they fail to get a single rupee allocated to the state from Delhi. They do not have the power to help the people of the state. All they know is to be on the attack mode against us, to find fault with us,” said Banerjee while inaugurating a Jagaddhatri Puja in Posta area of city which is the hub of wholesale business.
“Such attacks did not happen in the past when constitutional posts used to be respected and none would speak against each other in this way. I know how it was in the past having being an MP for several terms,” she said.
Continuing her tirade against the BJP-led government at the Centre, she said it has put the common man in dire straits by demonitisation five years ago and now the fuel price hike, which fetched it Rs 4 lakh crore.
“It has hurt the aam admi hard. The achhe din promise by Narendra Modi has turned out to be bure din,” she added.
The chief minister urged the traders to make minimum profit from the sale of essentials and vegetables for one year in the interest of the general public.
“Please don’t charge too much price for vegetables. I know you are all hard hit by the fuel price spiral, but still try to ensure that vegetable prices is contained as much as possible,” she told Posta Merchants Association, the organisers of the puja.
The chief minister iterated her government plans to organize business meets, music meets, film festival and support other festivals and fairs in the coming months.
