Siliguri, March 5: The CPM’s labour wing has shed light on the state government’s failure to include north Bengal in its industrial drive.

A booklet, Rajye Silpa Sthapaney Udyog Ebong Amader Dwaitya, released by the Citu, the CPM’s trade union, during its ninth state conference here, shows that only two new units — a cold storage and a fertiliser factory — were set up in Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts in the past one year. Another unit in Jalpaiguri producing items like elastic roll clips and grooved rubber rods was expanded during the same period. All these projects led to an investment of Rs 17.67 crore, but generated employment for only 58 people .

“Only 0.46 per cent of the total investment was made in north Bengal. Not a single new industrial unit came up in Cooch Behar, Malda and the two Dinajpurs. In southern districts like Burdwan, Howrah, Hooghly and Bankura, 64 industrial units were opened. The highest was in Burdwan, where 21 companies opened units,” a Citu leader observed.

Not only that, the booklet claims that most of the projects in the pipeline will also come up in the southern part of the state. “Only five of the 86 are proposed to be established in north Bengal. This is only 5.81 per cent of the total number of projects,” the Citu leader said. “Investment-wise, a proposed Rs 1,958 crore would be spent in the region which is only one per cent of the total statewide projected investment of Rs 1,83,757.76 crore.”

The five proposed projects for north Bengal include a food park and a Lafarge cement plant in Malda where investments would be Rs 100 crore and Rs 1,500 crore, an electronic goods manufacturing unit by Videocon with an investment of Rs 250 crore and a Rs 92-crore hydel power plant in Darjeeling and a Rs 16-crore jute yarn manufacturing unit in Cooch Behar.

Citu leaders said lack of infrastructure and distance from the state capital are the prime deterrents. State president Shyamal Chakraborty said the issue has been deliberated upon. “We will focus on the region so that private investments flow in creating more jobs in north Bengal.”