Kolkata: A slip of the tongue by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has left her government red-faced with top officials scurrying for setting the record straight. The confusion started with the mercurial Chief Minister announcing that the Tatas will invest Rs.600 crore in West Bengal on Monday.
Within minutes her statement made headlines in the mainstream media as the TMC supremo's agitation against land acquisition by the the then Left Front government for Tata Motor's Nano factory in Singur played a key role in catapulting her to power in the state in 2011.
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However, within a few hours the State Government clarified that is not the Tatas but the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd which will be making the investment. Speaking to reporters, Chief Secretary Dr. Hari Krishna Dwivedi clarified that the Chief Minister did not mean to say Tatas. " The Chief Minister did not mean to say Tatas but the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd which will be investing in Raninagar in Jalpaiguri," said Dr. Dwivedi.
Then at around 9.23 pm on Monday, the State Secretariat in an apparent bid to clear the air issued a release on the salient features of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd's investment in West Bengal. " Hon'ble Chief Minister inaugurated new factory of Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd on 6.9 acres of land at Rani Nagar in Jalpaiguri. The unit has been established with an investment of Rs 660 crores (already invested Rs 1000 crores in the state)," stated the release.
