Investment proposals to the tune of Rs 3.42 lakh crore, which would potentially create nearly 40 lakh new jobs in the state, were received in just two days of the sixth edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit, 2022.

So claimed Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the summit’s valedictory session amid strong doubts expressed by leaders of opposition parties on not only the current figures but also the implementation status of proposals received during the previous five editions of the summit which, as per government claims, run into over Rs 12 lakh crore.

Till the time this report was filed, the Bengal government did not divulge the details and sector-wise break-up of the investment figure it claimed to have received in the last 48 hours.

Drawing direct reference to the post-riots controversial demolition drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area, but without naming it, Banerjee’s pitch for the summit’s “runaway success” was her faith in “people’s unity”. “We don’t want to bulldoze. We don’t want to divide people, we want to unite people. Unity is our main strength. Culturally, you will be very sound if you are united. But if you are divided, you will fall,” she said in her valedictory speech.

Banerjee said the proposals came from 137 MoUs, Letters of Intent and Expressions of Interest towards investments signed and exchanged during the two-day summit which was attended by some 4,300 delegates from 42 countries comprising over 500 foreign participants.

Banerjee left no ambiguity in claiming leadership status in running the risk of organising a business summit amid Covid-19 concerns, which was the first among such state summits organised in the country since the pandemic-triggered shutdown.

“My colleagues in the government had doubts on the possibility of having a meet of such global scale when I proposed the idea amid the pandemic. But I insisted on doing it to build confidence among investors. I said, even if not too many countries respond, it would still be enough. The disease will come and go but it cannot be allowed to rule our lives,” Banerjee said.

“Now that Bengal has shown the way, others would follow,” she added, while reiterating her prime objective of industrialising the state and creating fresh jobs during her present tenure.

Banerjee’s claims were, however, sharply contested by her political opposition in the state as BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said: “We hear these investment promises every year. The signed MoUs never get converted into actual investments. Kolkata doesn’t even have a direct flight from London. She suppresses the fact that 45 lakh migrant workers from Bengal are working in other states because of the lack of job opportunities here.”

Sujan Chakraborty, CPI-M leader, chimed in: “Before claiming success for this edition of the summit, the chief minister must publicly state the status of those Rs 12 lakh crore proposals she claims to have received during the previous summits. It’s all an eyewash with public money.”

Unfazed by the criticism, Banerjee went on to announce that the seventh edition of the summit would have an extra day compared to earlier ones and would be organised next year itself — from February 1-3, 2023 — cutting down on its conventional two-year gap.

“Better start preparing for that right from this day,” Banerjee told her bureaucrats in government.

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