Banerjee was speaking during an Industrial Promotion Board (IPB) meeting at Nabanna in Kolkata on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by West Bengal Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and secretaries from other state departments. According to officials, the prime minister announced several investment proposals that the state’s economic corridors had recently drawn up.

“More than Rs 1.14 lakh crore has been invested in the MSME sector of West Bengal. As a result, 41 lakh people will get new jobs. This is a big problem,” said the CM. The CM also announced that the Bengal Global Business Summit will be held in the state capital from 21-23 November. In the run up to the three-day event, delegations of state government officials will visit Mumbai, Jaipur, Chennai and Bangalore in search of investment.

Speaking about the World Trade Center’s decision to open its office in Kolkata, Banerjee said: “The World Trade Center is now opening an office in Kolkata. The MoU will be signed on March 21. The upcoming office will be built on 35 lakh square feet of land and the project will create 30,000 jobs. Rs 1,500 crores are being invested.”

Underlining that 8,000 acres have been identified for acquisition, the head of government, however, clarified that her government “will not acquire any land by force.”

The CM said that Tata-Hitachi will soon move its factory from Jamshedpur to Kharagpur. He also announced that the youngsters will be given Rs 5 lakh to start any business under the ‘Bhobishyot’ credit card scheme.

Later that day, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi said that new policies are being drawn up to increase freshwater fish production in the state. He said the government recently conducted a survey and found that the state has 12,800 reservoirs, he said.

“Of these, around 2,500 bodies of water are owned by the government. Under a new policy, these bodies of water will be leased to interested private companies for fish farming,” he said.

Dwivedi also stated that the work to build a mega fishing center in Nayachar is proceeding at a fast pace.

“A fish processing system will be created under public-private programs at a cost of Rs 125 crore,” he said.

Meanwhile, Banerjee visited the home department to check the attendance of government employees. The home department office is located on the fourth floor of Nabanna.

“When the chief minister arrived at around 12:30 p.m., she only saw 25 percent of the employees present. She was quite angry about the low attendance,” an official said. The internal portfolio is in charge of the prime minister.

Actor Dev will be the new tourism ambassador

Calcutta: CM Mamata Banerjee announced on Wednesday that actor-turned-MP Deepak Adhikari, popularly known as Dev, will be the new brand ambassador for the state tourism department. “We have Shah Rukh (Khan). He also made a video, but he is usually very busy. Dev, you will be doing some work as a brand ambassador for the tourism department. I’ll ask the tourism department to name him the new ambassador. Let (film director) Goutam Ghose prepare a video (about tourism), and Dev, along with others, will promote it,” Banerjee said. ENS and ITP