Seven out of eight major chambers of commerce in Kolkata today issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern over the continued disruptions which are severely affecting mega projects in West Bengal. The frequent and recently intensified disturbances are not only delaying the projects but are showing the state in a poor light”.
Incidentally, the Left Front trade unions led by CITU would be bringing the state to a complete halt on August 20 through a workers’ strike across all sectors except power generation and critical healthcare.
One major trade body, the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BNCCI) mostly representing locally-owned small and medium enterprises, did not join the appeal.
The joint statement did not mention any names but referred indirectly to the Trinamul Congress (TC) agitation against alleged forcible acquisition of land at Singur for the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh car plant.
The Left Front ruled Bengal government had been trying for the last three days to get the trade bodies to issue the joint statement to corner TC, which recently decided to build a series of platforms around the Singur plant and stage continuous protests from August 24.
The trade bodies which jointly issued the appeal were Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI), Bharat Chamber of Commerce (BCC), Calcutta Chamber of Commerce (CCC), the eastern region arm of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII-ER), Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Merchants Chamber of Commerce (MCC) and Oriental Chamber of Commerce (OCC).
Sources said BNCCI did not join the process because it felt the problem at Singur was purely a tiff between the CPI(M) and TC, and also because it was opposed to the August 20 Left-sponsored general strike, but this could not be confirmed from BNCCI.
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While BCCI represented professionally managed companies, ICC represented Marwari family owned large business houses and OCC the minority community businessmen, while BCC, along with CCC and MCC represented different segments of the small business and trading sectors.
CII-ER was the local arm of the national body and at present, its regional chairman was from Tata Ryerson, a company involved in the Singur project.
The statement said the disruptions, “coupled with a still-persisting bandh culture and retrograde steps can cruelly wipe out the positive image which West Bengal has been able to create vis-à-vis its industrial regeneration”.
To counter the TC demand for return of 350-odd acres out of 1000 acres to to unwilling farmers, the industry chambers said, “We appreciate that both agriculture and industry have important roles to play in the developmental process. If there is any dispute, we firmly believe that the same can always be sorted out amicably”.
On August 5, the West Bengal government toughened its stand on the land acquisition controversy around the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh factory in Singur, with the chief minister vowing to have the have the factory there.
In response, TC leader Mamata Banerjee, appealed to Ratan Tata to listen to the voice of the local people who had voted out the CPI(M) and elected TC representatives in the May panchayat elections.
Nirupam Sen, the state’s industries minister, said, “The 400 acres demanded by Trinamul cannot be returned and the Tata Motors project is going ahead. Also, the government does not have surplus land to give to the unwilling farmers who lost land to the factory, but would be willing to revisit the compensation offer.”
In response, Banerjee said, “The land has to be returned but this does not mean Trinamul Congress is against Tata. I appeal to Ratan Tata, in view of the family he represents, to listen to the voice of the local people who have rejected the Left, and not to rely completely on the CPI(M) which misled him and plunged him into the problem at Singur.”
Banerjee alleged that there was surplus land at the site at Singur, as the government, CPI(M) brokers and state agencies had acquired excess land.
In a parallel but unrelated development, Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen said on August 5 that industrialization was the only way forward for both the state and the country, adding, “We all have to think about the consequences if Tatas pull out of the project and the signal it will send to other prospective investors.”
The Singur area had elected TC representatives to all the three levels of the panchayat structure in the May elections in which the Left Front and CPI(M) suffered major setbacks and lost half the districts in the state.