Will Mamata reach beyond her grasp?

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has set her sights on the industrialisation of Bengal. Good intentions indeed, but requiring much more than lip service.

Throughout its 34-year stay in power, the Left Front government was never short of promising an industrial turnaround. In reality, except for a brief period in the middle of the last decade, West Bengal missed getting the attention of investors. Mamata Banerjee too followed in the footsteps of her predecessors in terms of promises.

However, the last five years are best remembered for the completion of India’s first greenfield private airport at Andal, firmed up during Left rule; paving the way for the revival of Haldia Petrochemicals by resolving ownership issues; and an active proposal from the Hiranandani group to set up an offshore LNG terminal. The rest is all about food processing and cement grinding shops.

A look at the central excise collection, a barometer of industrial health, shows that Kolkata is now comparable to tier 2 cities such as Visakhapatnam and doesn’t stand a chance before a Rajkot. Barring service tax, the State simply failed to keep up with the growth rate in collections. The number of commissionerates in Kolkata zone has reduced from seven to five. On the contrary, Pune has four, up from two. 

Traditionally, West Bengal has suffered from an image problem — a gift of Left politics. As chief minister, therefore, Mamata Banerjee should pay maximum attention to repairing the image.

In her first term she brought visible changes to the State’s road infrastructure. Except for the delay in widening the North-South highway (NH34), roads improved dramatically.

For a party that came to power on an anti-land acquisition promise, the State acquired nearly 500 acres, mostly in North Bengal, for new roads and bridges. But she failed miserably in addressing the biggest social ill — the predominance of extortion rackets (commonly referred to as syndicates) that prevented the growth of the organised sector.

The Left governments allowed such activities to cover up their failure in generating employment in the organised sector. During Mamata Banerjee’s tenure they grew out of proportion. In Haldia and Durgapur industrial areas — where the Trinamool Congress lost all five Assembly seats in 2016 —extortion takes place at every step. Even the job of a labourer in a private company is sold for lakhs by party leaders.

The chief minister must know that every job is for sale, and her senior leaders rival each other in collecting extortion money. If she means business, she must end this practice. 

The course correction has become more necessary than ever due to increasing competition from the neighbourhood in attracting investment. Odisha today has a larger concentration of industry than Bengal, and Bhubaneswar is a bigger growth centre than Kolkata. Similarly, Sikkim is making steady progress in attracting investment to the pharmaceutical and hydro-electric sectors.

That’s not all. The North-East which at one time did not exist in investment maps, is coming up as a promising destination, courtesy a host of connectivity measures between India, Bangladesh and Myanmar which have unlocked the market access potential. The transportation of goods through Bangladesh, regional road and rail connectivity projects and, access to Chittagong port in Bangladesh will drive change in the region, with Tripura and Assam in the front seat.

Most important of all, Bangladesh is out to attract Indian investment that will use its soil as a production base to cater to the eastern Indian markets, taking advantage of zero-duty imports. The two upcoming Bangladeshi SEZs, dedicated to Indian investments, right on the border with West Bengal, will give tough competition to Mamata Banerjee’s industrialisation plan.

 But of course, this doesn’t mean the end of the road for West Bengal. The proposed deep-sea port at Sagar Islands and, the availability of LNG will create fresh opportunities for growth. But to take advantage of that, the State must find a solution to the land issues. It is impossible for industry to buy its own land. And, the so-called government land bank is useless due to non-availability of suitable infrastructure.

One good decision that the government took recently was to develop industry parks fully aided with infrastructure. Tamil Nadu had successfully followed this model in the past. But it’s still a decision that didn’t see much implementation. Hopefully, the new government will work in this direction.