Asok Bhattacharya raises doubts on summit success

Siliguri: Siliguri MLA Asok Bhattacharya raised questions about the effectiveness of the two-day business summit that concluded in the Darjeeling hills on Wednesday.

Asok, who is also the chairman of Assembly's standing committee on commerce and industries, expressed doubts and raised a question whether the proposed investments would eventually turn into reality.

On Wednesday, Asok circulated a copy of a report submitted by the standing committee, headed by him, for the current fiscal in the Assembly. In the report, he said, he has mentioned about unutilised land in some areas of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts. He also referred to lack of proper planning, poor infrastructure and presence of bottlenecks which are delaying industrialisation and has left some old projects, like Tea Park, incomplete till now.

"I doubt whether the Darjeeling hills has necessary infrastructure for industrialisation. My question is without developing infrastructure in the hills, why the summit was planned. Also, shortage of infrastructure also poses a question as whether the proposals mentioned during the meet will eventually turn into reality," the mayor said.

Asok's assertion came on the second day of the meet, when chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced in Darjeeling that proposals for private investments of over Rs 1,500 have been received during the event.

Speaking on the report of the standing committee Asok said that the committee, comprising MLAs, had visited four districts of the state to take a stock of the situation with respect to industrialisation during the current fiscal. "In the report, we have pointed that during our visit we have heard that the investors, who are running units in these places, are facing land issues, extortion threats and problem of poor infrastructure," he added.

For north Bengal, the state should set up a separate industrial directorate and frame a separate industrial policy, he said.

The Telegraph