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Posted Date: 16 Jun 2006 Posted By:: Nik Member Level: Bronze Member Rank: 0 Points: 1
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Buddha smiles as VS delivers Left hook to Smart City
Kerala’s loss is Bengal’s gain as Kolkata eyes Dubai mega project
NEW DELHI, JUNE 14: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has truly demonstrated why he is called the radical reformist in the Left. The West Bengal chief minister is showing keen interest in bringing home the Smart City project, a proposal sharply attacked and dumped by his Communist brothers in Kerala on charges that it was a real estate mafia agenda.
To the obvious chagrin of the LDF in Achuthanandan land, the Left Front government in West Bengal has already started talks with the Dubai Internet City (DIC) group to explore the possibility of setting up an IT consortium on the lines of the Smart City in the state.
“We have started preliminary discussions with the DIC. If they make any good proposal for IT development in West Bengal, we will definitely go for it,” Debesh Das, West Bengal’s IT minister told FE.
“We were interested when the DIC started talks with the Kerala government (led by Oommen Chandy, who chief minister then) on an idea of IT consortium called Smart City. A similar project could boost the IT scenario in Bengal. We have already started work on a Rs 338-crore IT consortium project near the Jagadishpur airport. This project will be a private-public partnership,” said GD Gautama, IT secretary of West Bengal.
While criticising the Smart City project, the LDF in Kerala had argued that DIC, which was a consultant to the erstwhile UDF government, was neither an IT company nor a service provider.
In fact, the Opposition, led by VS Achuthanandan, was instrumental in getting the entire project shelved. The LDF had even projected it as one of the important issues in its campaign for the Assembly elections. Mr Achuthanandan had said, if he were to come to power, he would not allow the DIC to take over 136 acres of plum land in Kochi worth Rs 1,145 crore for a mere Rs 145 crore.
When asked about the protests of the Left in Kerala against DIC, Mr Das said, “We don’t know what the Left in Kerala was saying about DIC. We will send a team of officials to Dubai to enquire about DIC. As the plans are at initial stages, I don’t think it is necessary to have discussions with the CPI(M) unit or the Left Front in Kerala.”
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