Nasscom slams West Bengal Govt. for scrapping IT township project

According to Mittal, the latest development in West Bengal will discourage other IT firms to invest in the state. "This incident has happened at a time when the industry is witnessing a single-digit growth of 4-7 percent. We will be back when the industry is on a growth path," he added.

Mittal, however, believes it is a "temporary setback" for the state government and expressed optimism that it will find a solution to the problem. "The state should be able to come up with a solution. I am hopeful that within 6-8 months, the government will be able to allocate alternate land for Wipro and Infosys. The state government has the right intent to promote IT industry in the state,â?? Mittal said.

"There is need for trust and confidence in the minds of the industry. It will be really sad if after all the efforts of the state government to create an industry-friendly environment we have to look for land elsewhere," he added.

Besides Mittal, Kiran Karnik, former chairman of Nasscom also lashed out at the state government, saying it "has messed up" the land distribution process. "It is not only the Vedic Village incident, but we had a similar experience in Singur and Nandigram," Karnik said.

"West Bengal, despite having a positive government, has faced many issues in the past two years and losing two big trendsetters (Infosys and Wipro) who would have been followed by more companies is a setback to the state's image," Karnik said.

However, according to Karnik, it is not just about losing Infosys or Wipro. "It is not just about missing out on Infosys and Wipro but the state's inability to keep a commitment and that is a major setback for the industry," he said.