Kolkata: Saffron Consultants, which is positioning London for the 2012 Olympics and employed to boost the image of West Bengal battered by the Nandigram and Singur
episodes, will be submitting its plan report by November end, months before the Assembly elections is due in June 2011.
The diktat from the state government is that there should be no political overtone or undertone in the brand building exercise, state secretariat sources said.
"There has been a lot of misunderstanding on Bengal. We need to set that right. They will examine the strengths of Bengal, and see how it can be projected positively outside as well as within the state," the sources said.
Saffron chief Wally Olins comes with a client list that
includes LVMH, the Royal Opera House, East Timor Development
Agency, and the European Patent Office.
Olins and his team met secretaries of 12 departments
yesterday, special secretary of information and cultural
affairs Niloy Ghosh said.
A steering committee that will drive the project was
formed earlier under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary.
The committee has secretaries and principal secretaries from
various departments.
The state government would pay Saffron Consultants Rs
1 crore as fees for the project.
The state's image as an investment destination hit a
rock-bottom after the Nandigram and Singur fiascos.
Altogether 14 villagers were killed in police firing
in Nandigram in 2007, while Tata Motors shifted their small
car project from Singur to Sanand in Gujarat the next year
following prolonged agitation against alleged forcible land
acquisition. In the following years, the ruling Left Front
fared miserably in all elections.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 13:43