Jharkhand lures Bengal investors with SEZ invites

Kolkata: At a time when the Mamata Banerjee government is going to

Germany

to lure investment for

Bengal

, neighbouring state

Jharkhand

is dangling the special economic zone (SEZ) status to attract Bengal-based firms to invest in the mineral-rich state.

The Jharkhand chief minister who was here as part of a roadshow in the run up to Momentum Jharkhand — the global business summit to be held in January next year, said three Kolkata-based companies have already signed

MoUs

(ITC, Century Plyboards and

Bandhan Bank

) for investing in the state. It must be noted that the Bengal government is averse to allowing SEZs in the state because it believes that SEZ is a ploy to grab large tract of land.

Rajbala Verma

, chief secretary, government of Jharkhand, said her government is ready with SEZ and has already approached Infosys. “We are also planning to approach

Tata Consultancy Services

(TCS),” said Verma.

Focussing more on the IT, the Jharkhand government has also come up with a startup park with a funder’s fund of Rs 1,000 crore. The fund is a composition of

CSR

and the Jharkhand government.

While speaking to TOI, Jharkhand CM,

Raghubar Das

said, “We are a mineral rich state and we expect the country to flourish with our minerals. We are looking at investments, which will be primarily focussed at food processing, mining and IT sector.”

“Our main strength are the mines, we are looking to get around Rs 5000 crore per year from all our 18 mines together,” added Verma

The Jharkhand CM added that a significant number of workers from Jharkhand have migrated to other states in search of jobs. “I want to stop that. I want to create jobs for them,” he added.