Central ministers skip WB business summit

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service                                                                      

Kolkata, January 20

Even as delegates from 29 foreign countries were present at the inauguration of the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) here today, no representative from the Union Cabinet turned up to take part in the high- profile event.

The BGBS was held twice before and on both occasions Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was present. BGBS 2016 was attended by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu also besides Jaitley.

But this time, with relationship between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Central government touching a new low over the arrest of the two Trinamool Congress MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay and Tapas Paul by the CBI over a chit fund scam, Jaitley decided to give the event a miss.

Banerjee, who has positioned herself as the strongest adversary of the ban on high-currency notes by the Central government, did not forget to touch upon the demonetisation issue in her speech.

“Demonetisation has slowed down the economy. Industrialists are not able to make cash payments. It has hit MSME industries, small traders and especially farmers hard,” Banerjee said, making President Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi, who were present at the dais, visibly uncomfortable.

Banerjee appealed to the captains of industry to set up units in the state. She said the state had a land bank of 5,000 acres earmarked for industries. “The area is gateway of eastern north-eastern states besides being close to Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China”, Banerjee said.