By IANS
Kolkata : Reliance Retail officials as well as the Forward Bloc (FB), one of the ruling Left Front partners in West Bengal that is opposed to Reliance Fresh outlets, chose to keep mum Wednesday, a day after the state government assured security to the firm’s retail stores.
“I don’t want to add anything to the controversy now. We are holding a meeting with state government officials,” Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL) regional head Kalyan Sarangi told IANS after apprehensions that the firm might walk out of the state or put its plans on hold.
FB leader and West Bengal State Marketing Board (WBSMB) chairman Naren Chattopadhyay, earlier vocal critic of the company, also refused to comment about his party’s latest stand on the Reliance retailing controversy.
Asked about his party’s stand and what the WBSMB is going to decide on Reliance retail chain, Chattopadhyay said, “I am not ready to share any information about this with the media.”
The RRL proposal to enter the retail scenario in West Bengal created a rift between the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) spearheaded by reformist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and the party’s ally FB.
West Bengal Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb Tuesday said the state government would look into the police complaints filed by Reliance officials after two of their retail stores were vandalised by some FB party supporters at Girish Park in Kolkata and Seoraphuli in Hooghly district.
Deb said the West Bengal government would do whatever is required under the law to stop vandalism on Reliance properties.
Reacting to the assurance of adequate action against FB activists, FB state secretary Ashok Ghosh Tuesday said, “So what if the government books our activists? We will fight it out in the court. Our party sticks to its opposition to the entry of big business in the retail trade.”
He hinted that the government action would not deter his party from preventing Reliance’s entry into the state.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has received clearance from West Bengal’s Food Processing and Horticulture Department for its agro-retail business in the state.
The company plans to set up six national distribution-cum-processing centres (NDCs) in Kolkata, Siliguri, Malda, Haldia, Kharagpur and Asansol.
FB as well as WBSMB, which acts as an autonomous body under the ministry of state agricultural marketing and is headed by an FB leader, had objected to the RRL entry apprehending the possible monopoly of a private company in the state agricultural produce market.
The launch of Reliance Fresh stores, part of RIL’s Rs.20 billion agro-retail project in West Bengal, was announced by Ambani during his visit to Kolkata in June last year.
According to a proposal given by RRL, Reliance Town Centres (RTCs) to be set up in West Bengal districts would be a mix of hyper/super-markets, convenience stores, entertainment parks, multiplexes and other public utilities.
These centres would procure fruits and vegetables and distribute them to Reliance Fresh outlets. Most of these outlets, covering 2,000 to 5,000 sq ft of area, would be set up on rented premises in and around Kolkata.