“No new industry is coming up and those who had promised to invest in the state during the Left rule are leavingthe state. The government failed to attract a single fresh investment. IT majors Wipro and Infosys, who came here during our rule, are now thinking of leaving the state. What will happen to the state?” Bhattacharjee wondered as he addressed a rally of CITU workers at Dumurjola at Howrah.

Slamming the government of taking the state towards a industrial disaster in absence of a clear land policy, Bhattacharjee said: “Singur has now become a shashaan ghat. Had the car manufacturing factory come up there, about 5,000 to 6,000 people would have got jobs. Hooghly’s profile would have been different by now if our plan to bring industry to Singur was not thwarted.”

The senior CPM leader whose industrial and land policies were blamed for the Left’s rout in the state, 18 months ago, did not fail to mention the current impasse at Haldia and Dubrajpur in Birbhum where the role of Trinamool ministers have come under scanner. “At Haldia, one cargo-handling agency was driven out to give way to a company run by a Trinamool Congress MP. At Dubrajpur, it was under the orders of a minister that police went to recover a machine and when they failed, they opened fire. This state is gradually moving towards industrial doomsday,’’ Bhattacharjee added.

The former CM also highlighted the “farmers’ misery” saying they are finding it difficult to sell their crop as the “price they are getting is uneconomical”. He said at a time when salaries of ministers in the Trinamool-led government had gone up from Rs 7,000 during Left rule to Rs 27,000 now, former transport workers were not getting their legitimate pension, and many of them were committing suicides.

Similarly, he said, the law and order situation in the state was deteriorating with every passing day due to the ruling party’s vindictive attitude and attack on women. “Criminals know there is nobody to rein them in because it was their party, which is in power,’’ Bhattacharjee said.

He also slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for being intolerant and arrogant. “Why is she so arrogant? She has won the election. Is that the reason ? People won’t accept this anymore,” he said and added: “Why will nobody be allowed to speak against her government? The government acts immediately if somebody is vocal against it. Is it democracy or party dictatorship?” he added.

At the CITU convention, Shymal Chakraborty was re-elected president of the state unit, while Dipak Dasgupta replaced Kali Ghose as its general secretary.

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