Biman bats for Tripura CM before industry

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Kolkata, Apr 4: Biman Bose, the Left Front chairman and secretary of the CPI(M)'s West Bengal unit, came out to bat for comrade Manik Sarkar, the re-elected CPI(M) chief minister of Tripura, before a gathering on industrialists.

Bose, rarely heard marketing his own state before industry, told members of the Merchants Chamber of Commerce that Tripura is "very investor friendly". The MCC was hosting a ceremony to felicitate Sarkar.

Bose and Sarkar were just back from the Coimbatore congress of the CPI(M), where the West Bengal unit had been criticized by other comrades for its poor record in the social sector like literacy, drinking water and implementation of the rural jobs guarantee scheme.

At the MCC today, Bose did not shy away from reeling off the bare facts that show Tripura is ahead of West Bengal.

Sarkar's Left Front government, Bose said, was improving the human development parameters together with the economy.

"In fact, Tripura is well ahead of West Bengal in several aspects, including literacy. According to interim figures, Tripura has reached literacy levels of 83%, while West Bengal is touching 75%," Bose said.

Earlier, Atul Churiwal, president of the MCC, stressed that despite Tripura's large reserves of natural gas and great potential in horticulture and floriculture, its infrastructure was poor.

Replying to this, Sarkar said connectivity had improved considerably but admitted that there was a lot to be done.

"The roads are not good in the rural areas. We have asked the Centre to give us one more national highway at least," he said.

"Our state is literally floating on natural gas and ONGC and GAIL are now into exploration of gas in the state. Our doors are not closed to private players," he said.