28.10.14

Didi does a U Turn

Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee rolled out the red carpet for the Tata Group, promising every help, including purchase of land for expansion projects. It's a complete U-turn from Mamata's hands-off policy on land, and indicates just how desperate the Trinamool Congress government is to build bridges with the Tatas after forcing the company to shift out its Nano factory six years ago. The Singur agitation was one of the major planks that put Mamata in power. On Monday , the CM met managing directors of six Tata Group companies and told them: “Please tell us if you are facing any problem. We will do our best to solve it.“ She offered to help Tata Metaliks purchase an additional 110 acre required for expansion of the Kharagpur plant.
Originally scheduled for 15 minutes, the meeting stretched to an hour-and-a-half as the CM interacted individually with TMIL MD Sandipan Chakraborty , Tata Metaliks MD Sanjiv Paul, Tata Hitachi MD Rana Sinha, TMILL MD RN Murthy , Mjunction MD Viresh Oberoi and Tata Steel Processing & Distribution Ltd MD Abraham Stephanos. The top Tata executives seemed pleased with the gesture. “I am very happy with the assistance from the state government. WBIDC had acquired 192 acre six years ago and we needed 110 acre more to make the land contiguous. The government has already cleared 14Y so that we can buy the additional land. The CM has assured all help to procure this land so that we can go ahead with the expansion,“ Tata Metaliks MD Sanjiv Paul said.
A hint of Trinamool's olive branch to Tata had come on September 25, when the ruling party seemed to test the waters by getting education minister Partha Chatterjee advocate an out-of-court settlement on the Singur imbroglio. Speaking at public rally in Singur, Chatterjee had said: “The Tatas should go for an out-of-the-court settlement with the state government. Only then will it be possible for us to give back land to unwilling land-losers.“ In October 2008, Ratan Tata had shocked the corporate world when he announced the decision to relocate the nearly complete Nano mother plant from Singur to Sanand in Gujarat. “If you put a gun to my head, you pull the trigger or take the gun away . I won't move my head,“ Ratan Tata said at an interaction in Kolkata two months ago, echoing word-for-word what he had said while leaving Singur six years ago. Tata's comments on this and the apparent lack of industrialization in Bengal had sparked bitter and rather unsavory remarks from ministers Amit Mitra and Firhad Hakim.
On Monday, however, Mamata went all out to make the Tata executives feel at home. Industry observers felt it was as much directed at reinforcing existing relations as it was to send out a signal that the Bengal government is keen to create a pro-investment climate. The investor meet Biswa Banga is just over two months away . “The significance of the meeting stretches beyond the portals of the secretariat. The CM personally enquired with each of us on how the state government could help us in doing business and also asked if we were facing any problem that the state government could solve,“ TMIL MD Sandipan Chakraborty said.
The Tata Hitachi MD said the company had already got a Japanese ancillary firm to set up a unit at the Vidyasagar Industrial Estate in Kharagpur and was keen to get more Japanese firms there. “We are very enthused with the meeting. The CM tried to solve whatever issues we raised. The FM (Mitra) was also very supportive,“ Sinha remarked.
Amit Mitra was quick to point out that though TCS was not represented at the meeting, it was expanding its business in Kolkata. “They are setting up another campus on a 40-acre plot at Rajarhat where 20,000 people will be employed,“ Mitra said.

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