In a complete U-turn, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday desparately tried to bury her past spars with the country's biggest industrial group the Tatas and other industrialists that marred her image, by claimeing that investment climate in the state is better now. She met top industry leaders,including Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani here this evening.

 

Speaking to reporters after an hour-long closed door meeting with corporate India, including N Chandrasekaran who heads the Tata group company TCS, Banerjee said Bengal has a better and cordial industrial climate now and detailed policies on land acquisition. It has been claimed that as may as 45 top industrialists attended the meeting with her."Earlier, because of strikes, it was a minus point from the industry point of view," she said, adding since the Trinamool Congress coming to power, the number of manhours lost due to strikes has gone down.

 

Claiming that her administration has taken a slew of measures on a host of other issues as well, she said her government now has a detailed land use policy and has created a 10,000 acre land-bank for industrial purposes apart from creating an employment bank, among others.On the vexed issue of Singur land controversy, Mamata refused to comment saying it is a subjudice matter, but added the ultimate solution will make both the industry as well as the farmers happy.

 

Others who attended the meeting included Uday Kotak, ICICI Bank's Chanda Kochhar, Sanjiv and Harsh Goenka, Nitin Paranjpe of Hindustan Unilver, Sajjan Jindal, ITC's YC Deveshwar and Ashok Hinduja, among others. Listing out the opportunities of investment available in her state, Mamata claimed Ambani described the state as a  "gold mine" at the meeting.  Accompanied by her finance minister Amit Mitra,Mamata, however declined to give a specific target or expectation on the investment front saying she has presented her case to industrialists who will now prepare a plan.

 

She also debunked opinion of law and order issues, especially about the safety of women and added had it been the case, her party would not have won 80 per cent of the seats in the local body polls led last week.Her government has decided to create a financial hub in Kolkata which will also have a World Trade Centre.