Kolkata:
A private firm that was handling cargo at the Haldia port in West Bengal has pulled out of the project, saying that state was not providing it with a secure environment to work in. There have been a series of incidents, including an "abduction" of some of its employees that the firm claims are aimed at forcing it to leave the state.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee though dismissed the trouble at Haldia as "nothing" and chose to blame the media for making up the story to suit some business interests and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), her arch rival. "Nothing has happened in Haldia. Everything is peaceful there. The administration and police are doing their work. A section of the media with vested interest is exaggerating things and trying to malign the government," Ms Banerjee said in Kolkata.
The situation in Haldia is similar to what happened at Singur, where Tata officials who were working on setting up the Nano car plant, were attacked and beaten up. The Tatas too finally pulled out of West Bengal and took the plant to Gujarat instead.
The ongoing tussle between Haldia Bulk Terminals (HBT) and the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) peaked after three HBT officials and the family of one of them were "abducted" at gunpoint early Sunday morning by political workers, who told them to leave Haldia and never return. The local police chief had claimed no one was kidnapped and that the three HBT officers had left Haldia on their own free will.
HBT had been taken to court by KoPT after it stopped work on some parts of the project, following political unrest after some contract workers were sacked. The private firm claims that it was not getting a secure environment to work, despite paying for police protection.
Even at the time of its officials being "abducted", the company claimed that several calls made to the police went unanswered for hours.
There are claims though that the firm has engineered the law and order situation to escape paying a penalty to break its contract with KoPT before the agreed time.
In its statement today, HBT said, "The ever worsening situation at Haldia has left us feeling betrayed and we hope that the elements responsible for driving us out of Haldia are brought to justice... The economy of West Bengal has once again been denied the opportunity of growth, modernisation and development."
State Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya used the opportunity to attack the Mamata government. "The Bengal government has started a war against the industry. By creating a vicious environment it wants to drive away industry. The Congress will battle against the state government's war against industrialisation," he said in Kolkata.