Basu, LF partners oppose RIL's agri-retail project

Mukesh Ambani's Rs 2,000-crore agri-retail project in West Bengal has run into trouble with veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu and a number of key constituents of the state's ruling Left Front opposing the venture.

"We are opposed to the way it is being done. It has created a lot of problems among us and needs to be discussed by the party's central committee and the Politburo before a decision is taken," the former chief minister said on the sidelines of the party's weekly state committee meeting, after which he took the unusual step of addressing the media conference himself.

"We have not come to a definite conclusion on this but we will not do anything that will hurt the interest of the people," he said.

Basu, who wields considerable clout in the Front, said the interests of millions of small traders was involved.

Hours after Basu's comments, the Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) also opposed the project, signalling that it would not be easy for the venture, which is said to have the blessings of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to take off.

Forward Bloc General Secretary Ashoke Ghosh said his party was strongly opposed to the entry of big capital into agri-retail and small trade. "We want the Left Front to take a decision opposing the entry of big business houses into small trade and agri-retail," he said, adding that the party would discuss the issue with other Left Front constituents like the CPI(M), the CPI and the RSP. The party controls the state agriculture department.

The CPI and the RSP, too, opposed the entry of big capital into small trade and hinted that Reliance Retail should not be allowed to launch its operations in West Bengal.

"Our party is against the entry of big capital into small trade," Manju Kumar Majumder, secretary of the state CPI council, said after the party's state secretariat discussed the issue during the day. He said the party would enquire about the projects being conceived by big houses like Reliance Industries to enter retail business in the state and talk to farmers and small traders.

Asked if the CPI would insist that the Left Front oppose the entry of big houses into retail, Majumder said, "We have expressed our views and we will place them before the Left Front as well if a meeting is convened."

Senior RSP leader and Public Works Department Minister Kshiti Goswami also expressed his party's opposition to the entry of big capital into the retail business.

Ambani had announced the agri-retail project in West Bengal jointly with Chief Minister Bhattacharjee immediately after Assembly polls last year.

But even after 10 months, the project is yet to take off as state marketing board, controlled by the Forward Bloc, has refused to issue a licence to the company for starting operations, though the company has opened 80 to 90 Reliance Fresh stores across the country.

The state marketing board had also said that it would launch its own agri-retail stores named Bengal Fresh.

The company had made a fresh application before the West Bengal State Marketing Board for approval from the government.

According to West Bengal State Marketing Board Chairman Naren Chatterjee, the government wanted to know if the company would buy agro-products directly from the farmers or from the market.

According to the Reliance proposal, Reliance Town Centres (RTCs) to be set up in West Bengal would be "a mix of hyper or super markets, convenience stores, entertainment parks, multiplexes and other public utilities."

The setback for Reliance in West Bengal comes in the wake of stiff resistance to Tata Motors' small car project in Singur and violent protests against the acquisition of land in Nandigram for setting up a chemical hub and an SEZ by Indonesia's Salim Group. The state government was forced by the protests to scrap the project in Nandigram.

These centres would also procure fruits and vegetables and distribute them to Reliance Fresh outlets. Most outlets, covering 2,000 to 5,000 square feet, would be set up on rented premises in and around Kolkata.

Chatterjee had expressed worries over compensation. The board is an autonomous agency under the ministry of agricultural marketing of the state government and functions as a regulatory authority and controls the prices of farm produce.

Chatterjee said West Bengal had traditional agricultural marketing structures that involve millions including farmers and small and medium traders.

"If a private company enters in this scenario, the interest of farmers and small traders will be highly affected. These companies will initially open up a few outlets but later they will increase their chains across the state," he said.

He said the board was examining if RIL's proposal fulfils the guidelines of the West Bengal Regulatory Marketing Act. If it does comply, the company can set up collection centres in the state.

In the new letter, RIL has cut its proposed number of collection centres from 86 to 15, which will be set up in seven districts and said it will not go for contract farming in the state.

The proposal submitted to the board said that a large variety of consumer goods would be available in these malls. The share of fruits and vegetables in the total store space was unlikely to exceed two percent. The company also plans to set up six national distribution-cum-processing centres (NDCs) in Kolkata, Siliguri, Malda, Haldia, Kharagpur and Asansol.

The highly talked about Reliance Fresh stores, representing Reliance Industries' agro-retail project in the state was announced by company chairman Mukesh Ambani last June.