A day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee invited the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) scheduled in April on Wednesday, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar again intensified his criticism against the state government demanding her government publish a White Paper on the investment success of BGBS since 2016.
Today, Dhankhar wrote a letter to the CM raising questions on the success of the last five years’ BGBS, an annual show organized by the industry department to woo investments in Bengal. Dhankhar tweeted, “Sought information and White Paper #BGBS five editions @MamataOfficial as tall claims of “resounding success” are belied by ground reality”.
He also published his letter written to CM today. On 25 November, Dhankhar had also written a letter to the former finance minister and chief advisor to the state finance department Amit Mitra on the same issue. Today’s letter to Miss Banerjee might be creating a ‘negative impact’ on the chances of the PM’s visit to the BGBS, political observers felt.
While speaking to the reporters after meeting with the PM in Delhi on Wednesday the CM said, “he has assured to attend our business summit in Kolkata.” During August in 2020, the governor had also written a letter to Miss Banerjee seeking details about the investments proposals of Rs 12.3 lakh crore in the state. He had requested her to give a report in details in this regard as early as possible.
“On 24 August, I had flagged the issue for your consideration that neither the ACS (additional chief secretary),Finance, nor the Finance Minister, Dr Amit Mitra, is imparting information sought as regards the FIVE EDITIONS of BENGAL GLOBAL BUSINESS SUMMIT (BGBS). Surely, their stance is far distanced from transparency in Government, and also not in consonance with your recent assertion that our government works with complete transparency and there financial clearances and regular audit,” Dhankhar had stated in his letter to Miss Banerjee fuelling the controversy related to the BGBS.