Investment proposals to the tune of Rs 3.42 lakh crore which would potentially create nearly 40 lakh new jobs in the state were received in just two days of the sixth edition of Bengal Global Business Summit, 2022, claimed Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the summit’s valedictory session. However, the Opposition expressed strong doubts not only about the current figures but also on the implementation status of proposals received during the previous five editions of the summit which, as per government claims, run into over Rs 12 lakh crore rupees.
Till the time this report was filed, the Bengal government did not divulge the details and sector-wise break-up of the investment figure it claimed to have received in the last 48 hours.
Drawing direct reference to the post-riot controversial demolition drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area but without naming any of it, Banerjee’s pitch for the summit’s “runaway success” was her faith in “people’s unity”. “We don’t want to bulldoze. We don’t want to divide the people, we want to unite the people. Unity is our main strength. Culturally you will be very sound if you are united. But if you are divided, you will fall,” she said in her valedictory speech.
Banerjee said the proposals came from the 137 MoUs, Letters of Intent and Expressions of Interest towards investments signed and exchanged during the two-day summit which was attended by some 4,300 delegates from 42 countries comprising over 500 foreign participants.
Banerjee, of course, left no ambiguity in claiming leadership status in running the risk of organising a business summit amid Covid-19 concerns, which was the first among such state summits organised in the country since the pandemic shutdown.
“My colleagues in the government had doubts about the possibility of having a meeting of such a global scale when I proposed the idea amid the pandemic situation. But I insisted on doing it to build confidence among investors. I said, even if not too many countries respond it would still be enough. The disease would come and go. But it cannot be allowed to rule our lives,” Banerjee said.
“Now that Bengal has shown the way, others would follow,” she added while reiterating her prime objective of industrialising Bengal and creating fresh jobs during her present tenure as the chief executive of the state.
Banerjee’s claims were, however, sharply contested by her political opposition in the state. BJP leader Dilip Ghosh was curt: “We hear these investment promises every year. The signed MoUs never get converted into actual investments. Kolkata doesn’t even have a direct flight from London. She suppresses the fact that 45 lakh migrant workers from Bengal are working in other states because of the lack of job opportunities here.”
“Before claiming success for this edition of the summit, the chief minister must publicly state the status of those 12 lakh crore rupee proposals she claims to have received during the previous summits. It’s all an eyewash happening with public money,” chipped in Sujan Chakraborty, CPI-M leader.
Untouched by all those criticisms, Banerjee went on to announce that the seventh edition of the summit would have an extra day compared to its earlier ones and would be organised next year itself, cutting down on its conventional two-year gap: from 1-3 February 2023.
“Better start preparing for that right from this day,” Banerjee told her bureaucrats in the government.
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