WB housing minister says no IT infrastructure near Vedic Village

KOLKATA: West Bengal housing minister Goutam Deb said on Wednesday that there was no infrastructure adjacent to the Vedic Village premises where the proposed IT township was supposed to come up.

Asked to react on West Bengal land and land reform minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah's observation that the proposed IT township project should be scrapped, Deb told reporters on Wednesday that

"I did not even know that IT giants like the Wipro and Infosys were coming up at a site adjacent to the Vedic Village complex. But how can they (IT units) establish their units at a place which lack adequate infrastructure like road, electricity and water."

Deb also denied that he had any knowledge about the proposed joint venture project of the state government and Vedic Village authorities to set up a IT township even though the decision to set up the project was approved by the state cabinet of ministers of which Deb is also an important member.

"May be I skipped the cabinet meeting which had cleared the project. But I had no knowledge about the IT township which was supposed to come up at a land adjacent to the Vedic Village," the housing minister said, in an attempt to maintain a distance from the state government���s initiative with a private entrepreneur who is currently facing charges of acquiring land at gun point and attempts to murder.

Deb, however, reiterated on Wednesday that both the state government and the CPIM leadership were concerned seriously about the Vedic Village developments and "the government has decided to deal with it firmly without sparing anyone involved in the scam."
It is West Bengal land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah, who on Tuesday observed that the IT township project at the Vedic Village premises should be scrapped immediately as the government had proposed to set up the joint venture project with an entrepreneur who was now facing charges of grabbing land at gun point and from whose premises a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered.

Sources in the chief minister's secretariat hinted on Wednesday that the chief minister has sought a detailed report on his government's joint venture project on the IT township. It is also learnt that the chief minister himself will examine the details about the project and take a decision on it's future after consulting his party leaders.