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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Buddhaism:Invest in Bengal but run slow; turn to agri

Buddhaism:Invest in Bengal but run slow; turn to agri

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published Published on Oct 10, 2010   modified Modified on Oct 10, 2010

Want to invest in West Bengal? Try agriculture—that was the message from chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to captains of industry at a CII National Council meeting here on Wednesday. At a roundtable with industry heads, including ITC chairman YC Deveshwar, Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej and Pepsico India chairman Sanjeev Chadha, the Bengal chief minister shed his aggressive stance on industry, visible in the run-up to Singur, and said corporates would have to look at Bengal’s agricultural sector and unleash its marketing potential, though slowly and gradually.

To Deveshwar’s point that laws in Bengal were not adequate enough to support agro-based ventures—the state is yet to adopt the APMC Act—Bhattacharjee said the government was ready to gradually consider agricultural retail marketing.

“We grew 125 lakh tonne of vegetables last year. But we need to market them properly. We cannot continue with the old system of marketing and there has to be a change in the system. Our present policy is not encourage big corporates in the retail sector but we are gradually bringing changes in our policy. Metro Cash & Carry was allowed because it is not engaged in retail. But other companies wanting to be in retail should not be in a hurry,” Bhattacharjee said. Bengal is the largest producer of vegetables in India.

Bhattacharjee who in the past has often pushed for fast track development, saying “ We can’t afford to wait, otherwise we will miss the bus,” was clearly singing a different tune on Wednesday. Throughout the interaction, he advised industry to go slow and focus on agro-based industry for making new investments in the state. With elections due next year, and the drought alienating the rural votebank further, Bhattacharjee stressed on agriculture during the meet.

However, Deveshwar, pointing out to the inadequacy of laws for facilitating agro – based business, said the state governments needed to adopt the model Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act and do away with the Essential Commodities Supplies Act.

“We tend to follow age-old practices and therefore go for imposing laws like Essential Commodities Supply Act. The agriculture market in India is for four months but we have to stock for 12 months. But we cannot stock anything when Essential Commodities Supply Act is imposed. This act is not favourable for setting up cold chains, which can create an efficient supply chain,” Deveshwar said.

CII representatives proposed forming a task force to find out ways of implementing the model APMC in West Bengal to which Bhattacharjee gave his consent, saying that it would be formed with representatives from both the CII and the state government.


The Financial Express, 7 October, 2010, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Buddhaism-Invest-in-Bengal-but-run-slow--turn-to-agri/693611/


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