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Saturday, Mar 19, 2005

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West Bengal to attract FDI, take care of poorest

By Marcus Dam

KOLKATA, MARCH 18. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's Government is set not only to attract foreign and local investment in industry but also focussed to ameliorate the condition of ``the poorest of poor'' in villages in parts of West Bengal that have been identified.

``We are an industries-friendly Government... it is a good sign that the earlier fear against investment [in the State] is on the decline,'' the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, told the State Assembly here today. ``But we are also directing our sights to the villages where the poorest of the poor live and are alert to [the spectre] of poverty to eliminate which development plans have been adopted.'' He was winding up the debate on the motion of thanks the Governor's address, delivered on March 10.

Observing that the ``industrial investment image'' was improving he said over the past three to four years more than Rs. 2,000 crores had been invested annually in industries in the State with foreign direct investment in 2004 amounting to more than Rs.100 crores. The number of countries showing interest in investment was growing .The focus was on the manufacturing sectors with ``maximum investment being made in the iron and steel sector.'' There was a need for restructuring 56 sick State undertakings for their revival. ``There will also be some restructuring [of undertakings] in the power and transport sectors,'' Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

The Chief Minister pointed out that in rural West Bengal of the 38,000 villages 4,612 had been identified as the poorest. In some villages people were close to starvation. The villages were predominantly tribal and development projects aimed at ameliorating the condition of the people have been taken up under the Rashtriya Samavikas Yojna. Those living below the poverty level was 26 per cent - lower than the national average - of the State's population and improving their lot was the focus of development projects being undertaken.

Referring to the deletion of a paragraph from the draft of the Governor's address prepared by the Government at the instance of the Governor, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the Chief Minister pointed out that the minor change had to be made. Even though "the content was right the form [in relation to the paragraph] might have been slightly amateurish.'' The paragraph in question referred to support to militant outfits by ``certain elements based in a neighbouring country.'' ``We deleted it when the Governor advised against the "mention of a country when dialogue [with it] to hasten the peace process is on,'' Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

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