Two-day bandh, a loss of face for Bengal: Chambers

Kolkata, Dec 20 (UNI) Trinamool Congress sponsored 48-hour bangla bandh from tomorrow will not only have a loss of face for West Bengal's industrial growth but would also force a revenue loss to the tune of about Rs 2,000 crores.

This view was expressed here today by a combined platform of all the eight major Chambers of Commerces during a formal interaction with the media, in which the senior representatives of these chambers, speaking in unison, expressed total opposition to the recently emerged bandh culture of the state.

President and other senior representatives of Confederation of Indian Industry(CII), Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI), Bharat Chamber of Commerce (BCC), Merchant Chamber of Commerce(MCC), Calcutta Chamber and Oriental Chamber felt that the state based industries were not only fed up and disgusted about the bandh culture and apprehended that the recent turnaround in investment scenario of the state would be hardly hit.

The recent spate of bandhs, including the next 48-hour strike within the last fortnight, had reminded the darkest days of the state's commercial history. Such retrogade steps now seem to be all set to cruelly wiped out the positive image of West Bengal, which has recently coincided with the state's regeneration programme, they said.

Terming the recent spate of bandh as ''signalling the emergence of black days", they felt that unless the political leaders realised the gravity of the situation, the situation was bound to become bad to worse.

Later speaking individually on behalf of different chambers, Mr Sanjay Budhia from ICC, Mukul Somani from CII, Santa Ghosh from BNCCI, Santosh Saraf from MCC and Alok Mukherjee from BCCI said, ''Apart from financial loss to the tune of Rs 1000 crore per day during the bandh period, it was more of a loss of face and loss of investment opportunities that we fear most in the wake of a internationally competitive industrial environment.'' They said though fortunately no plans to welcome any major global business delegation are there in the next two days, but beginning from the first week of January, a number of delegations are scheduled to come to explore the business opportunity.

To a query, they, however, ruled out any dialogue with the Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to discuss the possibility of withdrawing the bandh but said they would make all-out efforts to maintain normal services in the respective industries throughout the state and urge all the employees to come and join work.

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