West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday made it clear that her government would not get into any trouble by trying to acquire land for industry and industry will have to purchase its own land from the market directly.

At the same time, she said that the state government would set up a 23-member core committee, comprising mainly representatives of chamber of commerce and other industry bodies, to sort out all disputes and differences across the table. The state commerce and industries and IT minister Partha Chattopadhyay, state finance minister Amit Mitra and few concerned departmental secretaries will also be member of that committee.

In her first ever interface with industry after taking over as the chief minister, Banerjee said in her characteristic manner, “It (referring to the core committee) will be like your own cabinet, you run it. I will be out of this committee, but of course I will be with you. You meet regularly and make your industry minister run and be always on his toes.”

“The whole idea is I don’t want the investors to run around from one place to another and get harassed,” she added.

The core committee will have to meet either once a week or once a fortnight, she said. The finance minister later clarified that no other state has such a core committee majority of whose members are from industry.

The chief minister also made it clear that all ministers and bureaucrats and even industry will have to function in a time-bound manner. “If you want to invest and do something, do it within a time frame or else you let us know that you cannot do it,” the chief minister told the industry.

The proposed land policy of the new government has already created some fear psychosis and pressed the panic button in some quarters. Even on Saturday a number of industrialists including ITC Chairman Y C Deveshwar tried to plead that when the requirement of land is large, the state must intervene and bail out the industry (although industry is not averse to buying it directly from the market).

Bengal Peerless MD K S Bagchi said that the state government should atleast fix the price of the land, otherwise such a policy would encourage middlemen, landing business community in a soup.

Unmoved by such apprehensions, Banerjee said that the state government was preparing a land map as well as a land bank as the part of the land policy, it would not procure land for the private investors. "For the private investors, it is always better that they should purchase the land directly. If we (the state government) forcefully acquire land, it will again lead to a disaster.

On the issue of frequent bandh and strike calls, the chief minister said that her government was completely against calling bandhs and strikes. “If one has to agitate, one will have to do it keeping the factory open. If one doesn’t follow this, one will have to incur people’s wrath and face the music,” she said.

Godrej Group chairman and CII president designate, Adi Godrej said, "It is very refreshing. Climate is changing here. I will ask CII members to look at West Bengal. Our group has already invested close to Rs 2000 crore in various projects and we will look at more investment opportunities in the state."

Fortis Healthcare MD Shivinder Mohan Singh also said that his group would also participate actively in the new Chief Minister’s vision to take the state back to the path of industrial glory and invest significantly.

“Today’s meet is a very positive step. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm to pursue speedy development. One could see urgency which is welcome. No state government today can take on the developmental agenda entirely on its own. The private sector has a significant role to play. For the two quarters to work in tandem certain trust building measures are required and this gathering has been one such step. It was a good idea to set up a core committee between business chamber representatives and the government for continuous sharing of ideas and to help push the developmental agenda. I remain optimistic about the prospects in Bengal,” said Harsh Neotia, Chairman Ambuja Realty Ltd.