Mamata Banerjee against FDI in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday that her party will not allow FDI in retail sector. "This is our policy. We are opposing FDI in retail sector for long when we were not in the government. This is our policy and we will maintain it. We had also categorically pointed this our in our manifesto," Mamata told reporters at Barasat in North 24-Parganas district on Saturday. She was attending an administrative meeting there.

Mamata's observation on FDI in retail trade was made after the chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu told a function in the city that "the chief minister might accept FDI in retain trade once she will realise it is a win-win situation for the people of West Bengal." Basu said at the function that "Mamata Banerjee is intelligent and an experienced leader. Retail FDI argument is very complex. If it is explained to her, then she will understand it is a win-win situation for the people of West Bengal."

Basu's observation was reported to Mamata by her trusted leaders and immediately after she came to know about this, the chief minister reiterated her stand on the FDI issue.

Meanwhile, in a related development, Mamata has written a letter to the Union home minister P.Chidambaram and denied his observations about the law and order situation in the state. Chidambaram had told a function her on last Thursday that he was very much concerned about the law and order situation in the state as crime chart had been rising high compared to previous years. Mamata, in her letter, had denied the home minister's argument and said that she was not accepting the observations made by him.