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Our Bureau

Kolkata , Oct. 23

THE West Bengal Government will facilitate an initiative taken by the Computer Association of Eastern India (Compass) to set up an "IT Plaza" in Kolkata.

It will respond "within one month" to any proposal received from Compass in this regard, the State Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said this while inaugurating Compass 2005, the annual exhibition of the IT trade body here recently.

Compass has proposed to set up an IT Plaza that would, in all probability, be spread over two acres of land and have a covered area of 50,000-100,000 sq.ft. IT hardware and software companies would be located in the proposed plaza.

Compass will soon prepare a project report and submit the same to the State Government for its approval and assistance in implementation. "The State Government will respond to you within a month of receiving your proposal on the IT Plaza," Mr Bhattacharjee said.

He advised office-bearers of Compass not to delay too much as land earmarked for the IT sector in areas like Rajarhat New Town was in great demand.

Responding to the Compass Chairman, Mr V.K. Bhandari's, request for fiscal sops - such as exemption of stamp duty and concessional electricity tariffs - for IT hardware units in the State, the Chief Minister said the State Government would look into these as well as allied issues with a view to facilitating the growth of the IT sector in the State.

In his address, the State Minister for Information Technology, Mr Manabendra Mukherjee, said the computer literacy programme of the State Government that would cover more than 10,000 schools across the State within the next three years would provide a boost to IT hardware manufacturers. "Each school will need a minimum of eight PCs. As such, we will require at least 80,000 PCs in the next three years."

Mr Mukherjee said the State had taken up a programme to connect all the 314 blocks in the districts with the State headquarters. This, too, would help the growth of hardware manufacturers in the State, he said.

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