West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra informed Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar that since 2015, the state attracted around Rs 12.5 lakh crore investment, which is as big as the GDP of the state in a year.
The governor, on August 6, wrote to the finance minister asking him to to apprise the former of five things about the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS). These were year wise amount spent on the business summit, name of the agencies through which spending has been made for organising BGBS, whether the payment was made directly or through FICCI, in which Mitra was former secretary general, number of MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) signed, investment and jobs promised each year and investment and jobs that were actually offered.
Mitra, however, decided to overlook the governor’s detailed queries and instead mentioned that half of of the total Rs 12.5 lakh crore investment is already seeing the light of the day. That include a major solar power project at a cost of Rs 960 crore with the help of a German financial institutes which has been inaugurated by the chief minister of West Bengal.
“Former finance minister Arun Jaitley, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkadi, former railway minister Suresh Prabhu and (cabinet minister) Pyiush Goel attended the summit,” Mitra reminded governor.
In his letter, Mitra largely tried to portray how the Bengal government has worked all these years against the negative working environment in the state which is infamous for its bandhs and strikes. Mitra said it was the government of Mamata Banerjee which increased the number of man-days in Bengal along with doubling the state GDP in the last ten years.
Reacting to Mitra’s letter, Governor Dhankhar told THE WEEK, “I am stunned by the finance minister’s response.”
“After 50 days, he is yet to give me details of the queries I made. What he is afraid of? Who spent for these mammoth summit?”
Mitra said around 28 lakh jobs have been created in Bengal due to the summit. However, his letter to the governor did not have information about the sectors in which these jobs were created.
The finance minister said about 35 countries participated in the business summit so far.
