People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Vol. XXXI

No. 41

October 14, 2007

Bengal To Set Up Plastic And Steel Hubs

 

THE chemical hub as proposed to come up at Nayachar plus the existing production units of the Haldia petro-chemicals shall produce a vast quantity of first-rate plastic products in various stages of ‘finishing.’ The sheer vastness of the quantum of produce will set up imperatives to create ‘plastic hubs’ to centralise and consolidate the thousands upon thousands of employment-intensive downstream units that would go in for mass scale and fully diversified fabrication taking off of the mainstream units.

 

The time has come for the Bengal Left Front government to probe seriously into the possibilities of establishing ‘plastic hubs’ at suitable places. Thus said Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently, while speaking at a full business session of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI) in Kolkata.

 

Lately, Buddhadeb who has been speaking frequently and with serious intent of the process of ‘thinking ahead’ and ‘anticipation of developmental initiatives’ while dwelling on the emerging industrialisation drive in Bengal said that fixing up the locational points for the downstream units would soon become as important as the placement of the industrial units, or mainstream production itself.

 

DOWNSTREAM HUBS

 

A similar need, said Buddhadeb, was being felt quite keenly about downstream hubs for the large steel factories that were coming up. Apart from the factory at Salboni, two other industrial groups have been proposed with the product-mix ready, at Burdwan and Purulia. When ‘on-line’ the quantum of steel produced would be massive, with employment provided to over one lakh of people and more — directly and indirectly — through ancillaries and downstream units. A total of just under Rs 100 crore would be invested. More investment proposals were in the proverbial pipeline.

 

To come to grips with the expected production overreach, one needed hubs to ‘discipline’ the massive flow downstream, or the market forces will take over completely. Buddhadeb has already appealed to the chambers of commerce to create working groups to look into the issues and submit reports; interim reports may come in as early as possible. He iterated the appeal at the BNCCI meeting as well drawing a hearty and positive response from the floor.

 

Buddhadeb also told the BNCCI meeting that the state Left Front government was keen to draft a rehabilitation policy for the land losers in the instances of industrial projects. He looked to the chambers of commerce including the BNCCI for key and practical inputs, and other relevant proposals. With the agricultural land abounding Bengal, a success of the Left Front government itself, any industrial imitative would see agricultural land being taken over. Added to the dimensions of the existing predicament were the twin facts of pressure of population per acre of land in Bengal, and the rate of growth of population.

 

The chief minister flayed the strong inclination of the UPA government for a Fund-Bank dictated strategy of ‘jobless growth.’ Even if the rate of growth of the economy is pegged at 8, 9, or even at 10 per cent -- what good it would do to the teeming millions if sufficient jobs were not created. The rate of employment had plunged down to four per cent and dropping further.

 

It was a great pity, regretted Buddhadeb, that the UPA government chose to gloss over Bengal’s suggestion at a past meeting of the National Development Council on the eve of the drafting of the Eleventh Five-year Plan that targets of employment must be fixed for such vital sectors as agriculture, industry, infrastructure, and services before the matrix of the planning process was drawn up and gone into. The mass suicide of farmers in Congress and BJP-run states have been a direct fall out of the skewed and anti-people planning, he asserted.

 

ROAD AHEAD

 

After briefly explaining the Left stand on SEZs and speaking in short on the issue of opening of closed factories, Buddhadeb itemised the road ahead for Bengal in terms of development.

(B P)