Barely three weeks before the Supreme Court decides on the Singur land return case; the West Bengal Government has extended an olive branch to the Tatas, assuring them of every possible help in expansion of their existing projects.

It comes as a major U-turn for the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which had not only maintained a safe distance from the Tatas since the Singur controversy but never spared an opportunity to lock-horns with the Group and its Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata.

In August this year, the State Finance Minister Amit Mitra challenged Tata’s senility. “He (Tata) had lost his mind” Mitra said in Bengali.

But all that is history now. The State Education Minister and Party Secretary General Partha Chatterjee on Tuesday told mediapersons: “Tatas have love for the people”.

Meeting With CM

This comes after the Chief Minister invited nearly half dozen top executives of different Tata outfits at a meeting in the State secretariat on Monday.

“Tatas are welcome in Bengal. We want them to expand their business in the State. We never had any fight with the Tatas,” Chatterjee added. Originally, scheduled for 15 minutes, the meeting with the Tata Group company heads lasted for over an hour.

The meeting was attended by Tata Ryerson MD Sandipan Chakraborty, Tata Metaliks MD Sanjiv Paul, Tata Hitachi MD Rana Sinha, TM International Logistics MD RN Murthy, Mjunction MD Viresh Oberoi and Tata Steel Processing & Distribution MD Abraham Stephanos.

Banerjee is said to have offered help to Tata Metalliks to purchase additional land required for expansion of Tata Metalliks project in Kharagpur.

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