Will follow own model,not Gujarats

The silver lining of the two-hour session was formation of a government-industry core group that would meet every fortnight to sort out the hurdles facing prospective ventures,such as power,water,infrastructure.

During the session,one industrialist suggested that Bengal could follow the Gujarat model of development. Mamata retorted: We will follow our Bengal model. We will not follow Gujarat model or any other model.

The Bengal model,as she outlined,envisions setting up of IT hubs,creation of industry clusters based on available local talent and small and medium industries.

Y C Deveshwar of ITC Group complained about the new land policy,which urges industrialists to go and buy their own land. ITC,he pointed out,has not been able to do so for the last 5 years.

Deveshwar also said that infrastructure,like roads and connectivity,needed to be upgraded as it was still very poor as compared to Hyderabad,Bangalore or Delhi.

Land issues,in fact,dominated the session. Adi Godrej urged the chief minister to amend the Urban Land Ceiling Act which has locked up significant quantum of land. Sumit Majumdar of Tractors India and some others said the new land policy was creating hurdles.

Mamata said land issues would have to be sorted by investors themselves and that there should not be any forcible acquisition.