West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said no industrialists would face harassment in the hands of her government and they should be given flexibility and space to operate in a peaceful mind.
“We do not want to harass the industrialists. It is not good to harass them. Let them be in peace. I have the power.
But I cannot bulldoze. Let them be in peace so that they can fly high,” Ms. Banerjee said at the concluding day of the second edition of Bengal Global Business Summit here.
“There should not be any political vendetta. Let us give a message. My government will not harass any single industrialist. This is not our nature. It is needed to help the industry. And we have to help each other,” she said while announcing that investment proposals worth Rs 2.50 lakh crore have been received by the state government in the course of the two-day meet.
Ms. Banerjee’s statement assumes significance as she had politically opposed the Nano small car project of Tata Motors for forcible farm land acquisition by the previous Left Front government at Singur. Ratan Tata had announced its withdrawal and shifted the Nano project to Sanand in Gujarat.
“If there was any problem, the government will negotiate and sort them out,” she said, adding that instead of harassing them, “we would ask them to do more CSR.”
“They also need to keep money to meet exigencies. But I am not talking about black money,” she said.
“I am not a VIP. But a Less Important Person, LIP. We need to be humble and submissive. Our target is to make West Bengal the number one investment destination in India,” she said.
