Kolkata

Blaming the model followed by the previous Left government in West Bengal from where industry moved out, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the state needed to be business friendly if it were to create jobs by attracting investments.

“At present two states in the country are having revenue deficits – they are Kerala and West Bengal. It is because of the common connection which does not need rocket science to understand. It is because of the model followed by the Left governments in these two states,” he said at a memorial lecture here today.

The model followed by these two states led the industry to move out as they no longer remained the best places to do business, he said.

Stating that industry is the chooser, Jaitley said, “Industry has the option to choose and decide where to go. It is required to hold him (industry) and not let him run away.

If West Bengal has to create jobs then it has to adopt the alternative model of being investor friendly.”

Else, the past status quo would continue, he said.

The one good thing which was happening was that all the states were competing for investments by holding investor conferences.

“There is a changing idiom of politics now. Everybody wants to demonstrate that they want investments,” he added.

PTI