Mamata at the rail event in Krishnagar on Tuesday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Krishnagar Dec. 21: Mamata Banerjee today dared the CPM to “match her” on development and in the race for starting industrial projects in Bengal.

“Catch me if you can. There is no point in criticising me. I will carry on with the development projects that I have announced as a minister. The CPM is campaigning against me. The people of Bengal will give a befitting reply to them,” she said while laying the foundation for a slew of railway projects in Krishnagar.

Mamata, accompanied by her Trinamul colleague and Union minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy, attacked the ruling Left’s track-record on industry.

“In 35 years they could announce only one industry, the Jindal steel plant. Udbodhaner dinei bisarjan (But it was doomed the day it was launched). In Singur too, they failed. But all the factories that I have announced from the railways will happen,” she said.

Even on Singur, where her protest was blamed for forcing the Tatas to move the Nano plant outside Bengal, she argued that the project could have gone ahead had the state government agreed to give back 400 acres allegedly acquired forcibly to the farmers. “I never said no to a factory in Singur. I only asked for 400 acres be returned.”

She accused the Left of not having done anything for the state while supporting the UPA I. “For 10 years I was not a part of the ministry. Not a single penny was spent on Bengal in these 10 years.”

Left rally

Left Front chairman Biman Bose today announced a rally at the Brigade Parade grounds in Calcutta on February 13 to highlight what he described as the Congress-led UPA government’s “corruption’’ and Trinamul Congress’s “anarchy” across the state.