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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | CPM targets Bengal finance minister's US visit -Saibal Sen

CPM targets Bengal finance minister's US visit -Saibal Sen

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published Published on May 1, 2013   modified Modified on May 1, 2013
-The Times of India


KOLKATA: Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra is in the CPM's firing line for attending a three-day Banga Sammelan at Las Vegas last year in which Sudipta Sen's Saradha Group was the main sponsor. A few days ago, the CPM had asked the government to reveal who sponsored chief minister Mamata Banerjee's chartered flight from Delhi on April 10.

Mitra rejected the insinuations and said the state exchequer paid for his visit to Las Vegas. The Banga Sammelan was held under the aegis of North Atlantic Bengali Conference on July 6-8 and was sponsored by the Saradha Group, which has since gone bust, ruining lakhs of depositors.

CPM's attack on Mitra coincided with a reply from chief secretary Sanjoy Mitra that the state government had not paid for the CM's flight from Delhi on April 10, the day SFI supporters heckled her and Mitra. On April 25, Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra had asked for the details of the chartered flight, the cost, the name of the agency that paid for it and names of Mamata's co-passengers. Mishra received a reply from the chief secretary on Tuesday, stating that the state did not charter the flight and directing all the other queries to the Trinamool Congress.

"It is established thus that CM returned (from New Delhi) for party related work," Mishra told reporters. The Gulf Stream IV aircraft Mamata took on April 10 had a N218 KD registration number, say sources.

In the assembly, Mishra asked Amit Mitra: "Is it true that you attended a three-day programme in Hotel Paris in Las Vegas which had Saradha Group as its prime sponsor? We have been informed that Rs 2 crore was spent on that trip. Did Saradha Group pay for this?"

Mitra replied that the fact he had gone to Las Vegas was in the public domain. "It is an annual programme attended by 8,000-10,000 overseas Bengalis from the USA and even Europe. The expenses for this trip were paid by the state government. This is on record. I had borne some personal expenses." The then Indian ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao, too, attended the programme along with Mitra.

Saradha Group's Channel 10 had exclusive television rights to the three-day gala but Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh, who was the Saradha Group Media CEO then, did not make the trip to Las Vegas.

The Enforcement Directorate is probing whether Saradha's sponsoring the overseas fest was in violation of FEMA rules. ED special director Karnal Singh is likely to reach Kolkata soon to oversee the probe.

It is widely believed that Saradha's former vice-president Somnath Dutta and Trinamool MP Shatabdi Roy had attended the Las Vegas gala. Dutta has already been questioned by police and Shatabdi remained unavailable for comment. She has denied any role in the Saradha controversy. The North American Bengali Conference (NABC) organizes the Banga Sammelan every year since 1991.

The chairman of NABC's Kolkata chapter, former state armed police DG Rajat Majumdar, was a Saradha Group president till he resigned in July 2012, just after the Las Vegas programme.

Majumdar wonders what the controversy is about. "There were several sponsors and Saradha was among them. In fact, we get some of the best known companies and media houses to sponsor the programme. The contract with Saradha, apart from prime sponsorship, also covered telecast rights. However, it was later found they didn't have the requisite infrastructure for it."

The NABC-organised Banga Sammelan isn't a new thing, he said. "Over the years it has attracted some top sponsors and artists. It remains a very sought after fixture in the overseas Bengali calendar and nearly 10,000 Bengalis attend it every year. Every year, the Bengal chief minister is invited. It was so during the Left Front tenure, too. Last year, an invite was extended to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. She could not attend in person but did share with us a pre-recorded message. The state finance minister accepted our invite but didn't accept our hospitality. If I am not wrong, Biman Bose too attended such a conference in California in 2000. This year we are organising the sammelan in Toronto," Majumdar said.


The Times of India, 1 May, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CPM-targets-Bengal-finance-ministers-US-visit/articleshow/19811408.cms


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