Kanpur: Out of 100 leather entrepreneurs who had applied for land in West Bengal, twelve leather industries of the city have been given land allotment letters by the micro, small and medium enterprises department of the West Bengal governmnt in the global business summit held in Kolkata recently. The land allotment letters were given by WB chief minister Mamata Banerjee. According to Javed Iqbal, chairman, Central Region Council for Leather Export, so far twelve leather industries have got the letters of allotment and more industries would figure in the second list. He said the last two years have been very difficult for the leather industry, specially the tanneries, as they have lost orders worth crores of rupees from European countries due to the policies of the present political dispensation and shifting of tanneries in a new area in the city.“Seven years ago, following the state government's decision to raise a mega leather cluster at Ramaipur, leather entrepreneurs had spent Rs 35 crore with the hope that the cluster would be developed, but their dream shattered when they did not get an inch of land in the cluste", said Javed Iqbal. "Shifting leather industry to others states will be a big loss to UP as the leather industry has an annual business of Rs 20,000 crores and around 10 lakh people are earning their livelihood in the subsidiaries attached with the tanneries", he said further.Ashraf Rizwan, another leather entrepreneur said the land for the leather cluster was purchased at Ramaipur for which 285 members of the leather Industry had pooled Rs 35 crore but they did not get any land, forcing leather industrialists to locate a new place which can provide maximum facilities and is comparatively cheaper than UP. "West Bengal has proved to be an ideal place where land is cheaper having facilities of an international airport and a port", he added.Nayyar Jamal, another leather entrepreneur said that according to reports of IIT and National Environment Research Institute, there was no need to shift tanneries and the matter could have been resolved by raising a 50 mld treatment plant.

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