Bhubaneswar: The state government has disengaged the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as its partner for the investment promotion activities.

The state government took almost two months to prepare the ground to disengage the CII from all its industrial promotion activities after the industry body had announced in April to pull out of the government-sponsored Make In Odisha Conclave to be held in November. The first edition of the event was held in November-December last year with support of the CII.

A senior official of the industries department said: "The way the CII played mischief with the state government is unfortunate. We will show them that this can be done without their support. We will also ensure that the upcoming Make in Odisha Conclave is a success. We are in touch with other professional organisations."

The issue had taken a political hue with the BJD accusing Jagi Mangat Panda, chairperson of the CII, eastern region, and the wife of party's suspended MP, Baijayant 'Jay' Panda of being behind the CII's decision.

She had assumed the office of the CII in March last and the business body took the decision to withdraw from the conclave known in April.

CII state council president Arun Mishra and vice-president Subrat Tripathy had resigned following the organisation's decision to back out of the Make in Odisha Conclave. Mishra is now the vice-president of Tata's Gopalpur project, and Tripathy is chief executive officer of Dhamra Port. CII state unit head Suparna Nanda said: "I am not aware of the issue and not authorised to speak on the development."

Following the government's decision, the state has snapped its 27-year-old ties with the CII that has so far played a major role in organising industrial conferences, taking delegations to foreign shores and bringing proposals to the state for investment.

The CII had also taken delegations from Odisha for interactions with their counterparts in countries, including Japan and Thailand.

"We are a non-profit organisation. We had organised various conclaves, including workshops for various industrial promotion activities. These include environment safety and health policy, workshop on the GST, conclave on ancillary downstream industries and Krushi Odisha-2018. We cannot say at the moment that ties with the state government have ended," said a CII official.

The CII was also part of state government's "Ease of Doing Business" initiative.

When asked whether Odisha would miss out of the services of experts after disengaging with a professional organisation with a pan-India presence, joint secretary, industry, B.K. Das said: "We are competent enough to deal with all these issues. We are in touch with other associations, including the Ficci, to enlist their support. We may also go for an MoU soon with other industrial associations."