After eight months of Nandigram violence, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently visited the area and tried to win the people’s confidence back by saying that the government will not take their lands. Now, he has sent an indication to the corporate world that the government is all set to strike the right balance.

Buddhadeb said that the incidents of Singur and Nandigram have not sent any wrong message to investors. The investors did not withdraw any of the investment proposals in the state and the investment flows are on its way to Bengal.

In the year 2007, West Bengal has received its highest investments in the last 15 years and the Iron and steel sectors have received investments of more than Rs 90,000 crore.

At the same time, he told the people of state to accept corporate investment gradually and steadily. On the question of entry of private players in the agri-retail sector, on which he faced opposition from his allies also, Bhattacharjee said that the government was trying hard to get a compromise formula.

He defended entry of corporate houses in retail and said:

If we want to develop a competent market mechanism, we must allow corporate houses in retail, though slowly and cautiously.

According to him, people will lose jobs because of the entry of the big retail shops in state. The government is busy in working on a formula to move the big way for modern market mechanisms for cold storages and cold chains slowly and very cautiously.

He also said that the government is trying to accommodate the IT companies outside Rajarhat, in the outskirts of Kolkata. Kalyani, Durgapur, Haldia and other places are next in the line for IT players.

According to reports, West Bengal has managed to receive major investments in IT and steel in a big way. It will be interesting to see whether the compromise formula to attract investments in large format retailing in agriculture would work or not.