Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday asked for the spending details of the annual business
summit of the West Bengal government from minister of finance Dr
Amit Mitra, days after he asked for an equivalent information from
a top-level officer but got no response from him.
He also indicated that the government wants to
hide the knowledge.
Dhankhar had on Lammas sought the small print of the
amount spent in holding Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS)
from the extra Chief Secretary (Finance), expressing
concern about alleged fiscal irregularities and patronage in
organising the programme. He had also said that there was an assertion that the
investment generated on the bottom is a smaller amount than the spending
incurred in holding the event, which the Mamata Banerjee
administration has been organising since 2015 to draw in
investments to the state.
In a tweet, the governor said, “As the knowledge
sought as regards BENGAL GLOBAL BUSINESS SUMMIT from ACS
Finance @MamataOfficial has not been forthcoming, have sought
the same from minister of finance Dr Amit Mitra. minister of finance
should be proud to share achievement. Why hide from the
governor?”
Dhankhar said that he’s confident that Mitra would be
prompt and accurate in providing him with the info he has
sought. “Delay indicates information is being ”hidden”-what is
sought to be ”hidden” is usually big news. Orchestrated
statements and advertisements need to get on firm fact
foundation- something missing @MamataOfficial,” the governor
tweeted.
In a series of tweets on Lammas , Dhankhar had said
that he wanted to understand from the extra Chief Secretary
(Finance) what proportion money has been spent annually since 2016
in holding the summit and therefore the name of the agencies through
which the spending has been made for organizing BGBS.
He had also sought to understand “the name of event company
for BGBS and whether payment was made directly or through
FICCI, besides the amount of MoUs signed, investment and jobs
promised in each of the annual events.
Dhankhars last query was on the achievements made in
the BGBS — actual investments made and jobs created.
Opposition parties like the BJP and therefore the CPI(M)
earlier separately expressed scepticism over holding the
summit claiming it didn’t yield any worthwhile investment
from names that matter within the industry, which was strongly
rebutted by minister of finance Amit Mitra.
The opposition had also demanded publication of a
white paper on the particular investment that came from the
summit.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said within the
Assembly that fifty per cent of the investment proposals that
were received within the five editions of BGBS are already within the
process of implementation.
The next edition of BGBS would be held from December
15 to 17, the minister of finance had announced before the
coronavirus pandemic set in.
