Against the backdrop of the raging controversy over the Tata Motors' project in West Bengal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the state needs modern industries and the jobs that come with them.
On a day's visit to the state to lay the foundation for the modernisation of the state-run IISCO steel plant, he did not refer to the ongoing protest by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee over farmland being acquired for the Tata Motors' small car project in Singur. But the hint was obvious.
Maintaining that time has come for a new era of industrial development in the state, he said, "West Bengal must join the march of progress and benefit from the rapid economic growth in the country. West Bengal needs modern industries and the jobs that come with it."
The state needs a process of industrialisation that is employment-intensive and welfare-enhancing as well as humane and just. Every section of society, he said, should benefit from industrialisation.
Banerjee, who has been on fast for 21 days against the Tata Motors' project, had on Saturday sought the prime minister's intervention in the matter as it was linked to the debate on acquisition of agricultural land across the country.
Singh said West Bengal was once in the vanguard of India's industrial development but has fallen behind in the last quarter century.
"It was here at Kulti that the first modern iron-making unit in India was started more than a century ago. It was here in Bengal that the industrialisation of India began," he said at the foundation-laying ceremony for modernising the IISCO plant.
Singh expressed hope that the expansion of the IISCO steel plant at Burnpur would mark a new beginning for West Bengal.
"I am absolutely delighted to be at Burnpur which occupies a historic place in the saga of the Indian steel industry. It is a dream come true," he said.
Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, Union Steel Minister Ramvilas Paswan and Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunshi were also present.
Paswan said, "I kept my promise about the merger of IISCO with SAIL when I took over as steel minister."
Bhattacharjee said his government was for a turnaround in the state's economy. "We have achieved it in agriculture and are trying it in industry and there is no going back."
Along with the revival of old industries, the state government would like to have modern industries, both manufacturing and knowledge-based, he said.