Amit Mitra claims 23 lakh jobs created in Bengal during April-January

Modi and Shah have relentlessly attacked the TMC government, seeking to make a perceived lack of opportunity for educated youth of the state as a poll plank

Amit Mitra.: File picture

Special Correspondent   |   TT   | Calcutta   |   02.03.21  :  The Trinamul Congress has countered BJP’s claim that Bengal suffers from a lack of industrialisation and joblessness by touting numbers thrown up from bank lending to small- and medium-scale industries.

Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra claimed that 23 lakh jobs have been created during April-January of this year going by the matrix followed by the BJP government at the Centre.

BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, have been relentless in their attack on the TMC government led by Mamata Banerjee seeking to make a perceived lack of opportunity for educated youth of the state as a poll plank in the upcoming Assembly elections. 

PM Modi especially chose the closed Dunlop tyre factory at Sahagunj, Hooghly, as the venue for his last public rally to raise the issue of industrialisation under the decade-long Mamata regime. BJP alleged the young generation in Bengal is being forced to leave the state because of lack of opportunity. 

Countering the claim, Mitra tweeted this morning: “Mo-Shah’s negative propaganda on investment in Bengal BUSTED by 100 Bankers in Meet. Banks in Bengal lent Rs 63,000 crore for investment to Medium - Small industry, April 2020 - January 21, with the state government’s support. Result: 23 lakh new jobs as per GoI capital/labour ratio. Mo-Shah bolun (please answer Mo-Shah)?”

Later in the evening, Mitra explained that he used a conservative yardstick to measure new job creation in the state. “The Centre now takes a multiple of 44 new jobs for every crore of investment compared with 36 it used to in the past. I have taken the latter. Going by the matrix used by Modi’s government, Bengal has created this many jobs, even though I think the number may be even higher.”

Bengal ranks second among states to have the highest number of micro, small and medium enterprises, cornering 14 per cent share, just behind Uttar Pradesh. The state had 88.67 lakh MSMEs as on March 31, 2020 according to the Centre.

Mitra said bank lending facilitated by state level banking committee stood at Rs 63,000 crore as on January 31. He had set a target of Rs 90,000 crore lending for the full year before Covid happened. 

“I am still hopeful. The numbers will surprise us on the upside,” he said. 

In a meeting with industry in February, Mitra had said the lending may touch Rs 70,000 crore-Rs 75,000 crore.