Admitting candidly that the inability to communicate adequately the benefits of the major projects to the people was the government?s biggest failing in recent times, West Bengal commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen said Friday that despite the turmoil in Nandigram, investor confidence in the state was ?not dented? and industrial houses were continuing to show keen interest in setting up projects in the state.
The West Bengal government had also taken a decision that there would be a mandatory condition for all large projects in the future to undertake corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, which would include training workers, upgrading the technical institutes and also setting up institutes themselves, so that skilling and re-skilling of workers did not become a major issue.
Together with Sabyasachi Sen, principal secretary in his department, the minister, during a freewheeling luncheon meeting with senior journalists, explained his government?s stance on industrialisation, the strategy ahead and the key learnings from the problems seen at Nandigram and Singur.
The state, Sen said, was also working on a comprehensive rehabilitation policy which would not just include compensation but also include alternative livelihoods for peasants. ?We are talking to intellectuals, social scientists and economists to come up with this comprehensive policy,? Sen said.
?One of the key learnings from the Nandigram experience is that we must communicate adequately to the people the benefits and the downsides of the large projects, and take them into confidence from the very beginning. We were not allowed to reach the people at all in the Nandigram case, and that?s why things got out of hand,? the minister explained.
During his stay in Mumbai, his first since the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government was returned to power for a second term, Sen met several industrialists, among them Mukesh Ambani and Ashok Hinduja.
Pointing out that it was only after 2001, when large projects began to be set up in the state, that land availability began to turn into a major issue, he said: ?It was only then that the question became crucial since we required large tracts of land for such projects. Opposition political parties also took advantage of the situation. But remember, earlier, we smoothly acquired 1100 km of land for our leather complex, evacuated an entire village and created a new village for the purpose, all without any problems.?
Underscoring the fact that corporate houses were still queuing up to set up projects, he said: ?We are processing a series of proposals. There?s a very large iron and steel project, three proposals for shipbuilding projects, expansion in wagon building and also a railway engine manufacturing project.?