TMC's 'success' in attracting investment mere propaganda: Dhankhar

Firing a fresh salvo at Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar indicated that state government's 'success' in attracting investments to the state is propaganda. Dhankar has sought details of the Bengal Global Business Summit.

Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday hinted that the Trinamool Congress administration's 'resounding success' in attracting investments to the state is just propaganda and said that time has come to vindicate assertion that the government works with transparency. Dhankar said that he has sought the spending details of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the state's finance minister failed to provide him any document on it.

BGBS is a major annual event which the Mamata Banerjee government has been organising since 2015 to attract investments to the state."Urged to impart details of over 12.3 lac crores as ground reality does not so reflect. We are living in times where 'Goebbels' stance can no longer cut ice," he wrote in a social media message. Joseph Goebbels was the minister of propaganda in Adolf Hitlers government in Germany.

"The governor in his address to Assembly on February 1, 2019, indicated - 'The previous BGBS versions have been resounding success with combined investment proposals to the tune of nearly Rs 10 lakh crore of which more than 50 per cent is under implementation.' All hidden! why!" he wrote.

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The text of the governor's address to the Assembly is prepared by the cabinet. "Time to vindicate the assertion 'our government works with complete transparency and there are financial clearances and regular audit'," the governor tweeted.
He asked where the audit report of BGBS was and asked why not a probe be held in the matter since the public needs to know everything. "BGBS organised at huge expense with reported patronage to favourites," Dhankhar said.

In a letter to Banerjee on Tuesday, the governor held that neither the additional chief secretary of the Finance department nor Finance Minister Amit Mitra imparted the information sought regarding five editions of BGBS.
"Clearly, their stance is far distanced from transparency in government," he wrote, holding that it is also not in consonance with the chief minister's assertion that the
TMC government works with complete transparency and there are financial clearances and regular audit.

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PTI