But Roy’s disgust about and disillusionment with the TMC supremo and her megalomaniac aberrations deepened further due to the ham-handed way the 10-page draft industrial policy is being treated with. It was submitted to the CM on 8 January this year but no action has been taken as yet, although “even partial implementation of recommendations of it will give a mileage to Banerjee and her team and corner the Left Front government”, feels a veteran TMC MLA who still possesses a good image.

Policy recommendations of the report unequivocally state, “The state government is not in favour of land belonging to closed industries in urban areas to be converted into housing projects. It will issue suitable directions to the corporations and municipalities so that no sanctions are given to building plans for housing on land of closed industries”. This is totally in contrast with what the CPI(M)-led Left Front government did. Huge industrial lands like the Usha fan and Sewing machine-manufacturing units of Jay Engineering Works and Krishna Glass in south Kolkata, Bangalaxmi Cotton Mill and Dum Dum Aluminium in north 24 Parganas and several other industrial sites in districts clinging to Kolkata, that were closed down or locked for years, were converted into large real estates. During construction of those money-spinning projects grew unseemly a new breed of lumpen elements on the pay roll of real estate tycoons, many of whom had not only developed bonhomie with some top and middle-of-the-rung CPI(M) – some other constituents of Left Front too – leaders but had close rapport with the biggies of Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan, state headquarters of CPI(M).

“Had Banerjee been tactical – in fact she can still do so – in accepting the Roy report”, a senior TMC leader and associated with it from the stage of formation of the party told IPA, “as a policy it would push the CPI(M) leadership on the back foot and restrain the latter from saying repetitiously that the Left has started inching forward.” True, the top brass at the MA Bhavan are not unanimous in endorsing this claim of fight-back, some speakers, like former housing minister and CPI(M) central committee member Gautam Deb, use this assumption to buck up the morale of the rank and file.

Nagarik Mancha, a non-funded NGO, working among workers affected by industrial sickness and occupational hazards, has been pointing out for over two decades that hundreds of hectares of industrial lands could be taken back (‘resumed’) for keeping lands meant for industrial activity unused under the Land Acquisition Act and offered for new industrial ventures. NM general secretary Naba Dutta says, “Such conversion amounts to change in the character of land use and that’s highly irregular. But the previous government never paid heed to this vital question”.

Roy, realising the practical problem of land acquisition, suggests that emphasis should not be on large industries that, given the high-tech and highly capital-intensive technologies associated with large industrial ventures today, needs much fewer direct employments than what was in vogue even three decades ago. Instead, West Bengal being a ‘land scarce state’ and ‘the second most densely populated state in the country’, the government should ‘focus on the development of MSME (Micro Small Scale and Medium Industries) sector. With 25 lakh enterprises employing over 58 lakh persons, the MSME sector, including the Khadi and Village industries, Handicrafts and handlooms is the second largest in the state after agriculture. The sector accounts for 50 per cent of state’s total industrial production and 40 per cent of export from the state.” The draft policy, that Roy framed, further asserts, “The government will adopt the cluster development approach as a key strategy to enhance the productivity and competitiveness as well as capacity building of MSME by developing more industrial clusters and strengthening the existing clusters.”

Among other key points in the draft policy, based on memoranda from leading chambers of commerce and prominent industrialists and consultancy firms, are open door to FDI in the manufacturing sector especially in the hi-tech and sun-rise industries, public-private ventures and skill development mapping throughout the state.

The billion rupee question is not whether the draft policy paper will keep gathering dust in the CM’s secretariat as the commerce & industry minister Partha Chatterjee nor the finance minister Amit Mitra was called by the CM to discuss the document. All this is believed to have made Saugata Roy, a parliamentarian and orator of proven merit and widely knowledgeable on industrial development, disappointed and apathetic about the goings-on in the state administration and management.(IPA Service)