Two months after a spectacular showing at the Lok Sabha elections, and with one eye on the upcoming Assembly polls in 2011, Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee is a picture of restraint. In every platform possible, she is also making a pitch of her agenda if she comes to power in two years. She appears to be in great hurry to shed her anti-industry image after Nandigram and Singur. At last week?s rally in the heart of Kolkata, where her supporters came out in hordes, she promised jobs, electricity, water, but most important, development of agriculture and industry.

?A wind of change has started blowing across the state,? she told the 1.5 lakh-odd crowd. ?We will have to be constructive and positive to win people?s confidence. We should not oppose things for the sake of opposition.? Bengal, which has been slowly sliding back into a state of ennui, is now seeing some activity on the industry front, post Singur.

Just three years ago, West Bengal was on the recovery trail, with lots of action on the industrial front: The Tatas announced they would set up their small car factory, the world?s cheapest car, at Singur; Mukesh Ambani came calling with his retail chain; real estate major DLF picked up the state to build an integrated township project, promising an investment of Rs 1,00,000 crore over seven years; Indonesian Salim Group promised investments in a number of infrastructure, healthcare, realty, automobile and food processing projects. But suddenly industrial plans began withering away. The Tatas exited seven months ago; Ambani was forced to close down some stores due to lack of footfalls; DLF packed up too and the Salim Group ran into land acquisition hurdles.

The Left Front?s poor run at the recent Lok Sabha elections and the Municipal polls thereafter made the government jittery. Industry minister Nirupam Sen says it?s ?not so bleak,? though he admits that the Tata pullout has had a tremendous impact on the image of West Bengal. ?But the reality is investors haven?t lost all confidence in West Bengal,? he said, pointing out that ?they are not pulling out?. State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta feels the state has been late in starting the process of industrialisation.

Sen says ,?We are trying to compensate the Singur setback with other sectors,? listing a series of projects in the engineering, port, auto, IT, food processing sectors. The government has identified six mega growth areas, taking in swathes from east to west, north to south, from Asansol-Durgapur, Purulia and Bankura, Haldia, Greater Kolkata, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri. And yet, as the recent Maoist flareup at Lalgarh has shown, there are hindrances, not least the

critical land issue (see box), to the state?s industrial drive. Lalgarh, a tribal dominated area with 44 villages, is clearly a troubled area, and had been out of the state police?s control for nearly five months now, till the Centre dispatched paramilitary forces to ?free? the area of Maoists.Why Lalgarh is a worry is that it?s on the fringe of West Bengal?s industrial

corridor. To give just one example, this area is close to Dumka, where Jindal Steel & Power and Kolkata- based CESC have plans to set up steel and power units.

According to sources, Maoists have absolute control over 1,200 sq km in West Midnapore. In east Midnapore, Maoists have a base in Khejuri, which gives them a clear route to Nandigram, which is near Haldia, one of Bengal?s most vibrant industrial regions as well as the gateway to the rest of the world through Kolkata Port Trust?s Haldia port.

According to economist Ratan Khasnabis, while it?s true that Maoists are a great threat to the state?s economy, he points out that a Lalgarh like movement cannot last. ?They have no economic agenda and they don?t seem to be even following Mao Zedong?s theory of everything for bread.? The Maoist threat apart, there is great despair in rural Bengal over parting with land. ?The industrial initiative hasn?t been handled the right way,? admitted a minister. The government is already undertaking damage control measures ? besides thinking of bringing about changes in the Industrial Act, it has identified 40,000 acres of land locked under defunct units, which the realtors were trying to grab.

But much of Bengal?s industrialisation depends on the political situation and a change of guard in the state would actually hamper industrialisation because it would repeat the process ? ?learning by doing? as Khasnabis puts it. ?But Bengal has an above average internal market and its state GDP is a bit above national GDP. So there are opportunities for industries to thrive.? Khasnabis adds.

?For the last two years the state has seen incidents like Nandigram, Singur, suspension of production at Dunlop and so forth. The actual investment in industrial projects have gone down from Rs 5,000 crore in 2007 to Rs 3,600 crore till February 2009,? said Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry Chief Mentor Khokon Mookerji. But from the second quarter of 2009-10, there are positive signs, ?things are getting better?. Is this enough to attract new investors? Time will tell.

With inputs by Monalisa Roy