Kolkata: The opposition parties Congress and Left front slammed the TMC-led government's initiative 'Bengal Leads' that began at Haldia on Tuesday, dubbing it as a failure and 'mockery' of an industrial summit.
"The industry summit has started but the big industrialists were not found, which is unfortunate," WBPCC leader Abdul Mannan said.
CPI-M Politburo member and WB Leader of the Opposition Suryakanta Mishra alleged that though his party was strongly in favour of industrialisation of the state but the second edition of Haldia summit did not come out with any initiative in that direction.
"The Chief Minister's speech was directionless and the opening day's programme had a musical end which is not expected of an industrial summit," Mishra said.
On the chief minister's reference to Gujarat, he said it was Mamata Banerjee herself who was responsible for the industrial development of the western state by driving away Tata Motors from Singur to Sanand, Gujarat.
"We can't forget the contribution of Mamata Banerjee in driving away the Nano plant from Singur to the advantage of Gujarat," he said.
Abdul Mannan criticised the summit as a 'mockery' which ended with a musical programme, participated by some industrialists and TMC leaders including Sudip Bandopadhayay.
"Nothing can be more dramatic than this."
He alleged that the police had detained Congress' East Midnapore district secretary Kanishka Panda on the 'flimsy ground' that he could create trouble at Haldia during the industrial summit.
"We presume that the Mamata Banerjee government has become shaky and has lost confidence in itself and that is why an innocent person like Kanishka Panda was dragged out of his house, assaulted and detained at Bhupathinagar police station," Mannan added.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2013, 19:10