Mamata balancing industry and people's rights: Mitra

Kolkata: West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra today assured businessmen that his state was not anti-industry, but was only trying to strike a balance between industry and people's rights.

"Balance is what we present, protecting rights of people and also inviting industry for job creation," Mitra said at the AGM of The Bengal Chamber.

He pointed out that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was protecting the rights of the people on one hand and pushing for industry on the other, as she not only invited the Tatas to invest more but took them with her to Germany as well.

Mitra said the MSME sector was an important sector and even in Germany the sector played an important role. West Bengal is showing encouraging performance in the sector.

Banerjee will meet deputy prime minister of Singapore at Bangkok in November and will discuss on transformation of Singapore and West Bengal, he said. The minister hoped that if everything worked right the Singapore deputy prime minister would attend the state's annual investment summit.

Meanwhile, Mitra urged the Bengal Chamber to adopt an ITI and a polytechnic institute and open a GST cell for corporates.