West Bengal scraps Rajarha IT township project

The West Bengal's dream of becoming an information technology (IT) destination took a hit yesterday with the Left Front government scrapping the project.

 ''The government does not want to be involved in any illegal activity. Thus the IT department cannot proceed with the project …,'' a release by  state IT department said.

''Under the circumstance, we are unable to stick to our assurance of providing land to Wipro and Infosys,  and thereby constrained to inform them about the government's inability'' it added.

The proposed project had become controversial in recent weeks following allegations of irregularities in land acquisition.

The project was conceived with much fanfare last year and the representatives of Wipro and Infosys, along with IT department, met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to seal the agreements.

In 2008, the West Bengal government said it will partner information technology majors Wipro and Infosys Technologies to set up two special zones for information technology in the state (See: West Bengal ropes in Wipro, Infosys for two IT SEZs).