Kolkata:
West Bengal's IT dream is alive again. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has announced that IT giants Wipro and Infosys will get 45 acres each in Rajarhat. The companies can collect this land immediately, he says.
The commitment comes days after his government cancelled an IT park project with Infosys and Wipro in Rajarhat, a satellite town near Kolkata. Both companies had been promised 90 acres each. But that deal collapsed after the Vedic Village scandal.
The Vedic Village was a seven-star spa and resort that was being set up next to the proposed IT township. This was a joint venture between the government and a private company. But in August, a mob set fire to that resort, allegedly because farmers were being forced to hand over their land to Vedic Village.
The government beat a hasty retreat, cancelling the entire 1200-acre project. The Chief Minister says, "Something unfortunate happened in the Vedic Village area. Not only unfortunate but some criminal activities took place. We had no idea that this group is operating through musclemen, and they were using weapons and torturing people, thereby capturing land also. We thought it is morally not correct for the government to take over the land at this stage."
Losing Wipro and Infosys would have cost the state nearly Rs 1,000 crore. Sources say that the Chief Minister was so upset over the scrapping of the IT park that he was considering resigning.
The only uncertain element now is the price of land, which, according to the Chief Minister, is negotiable.