Assam industry minister Chadramohan Patowary on Friday said he was the “most grief-stricken” person in the state because of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest as many companies have withdrawn their investment proposals because of the protest.

“The most grief-stricken person in the state today is me because I am the industry minister. Companies that had plans to invest in Assam owing to our sustained efforts have withdrawn all their investment proposals,” Patowary told reporters here on Friday.

Patowary, when asked, could not specify the number of companies withdrawing their investment proposals from Assam and said it is an ‘n’ number and the amount of investment the state would have received was “huge”.

“We have investment cancelled from companies from Norway and Hungary. They called me up and requested to hand over the land we had allotted to them to some other company,” he said.

Patowary said among such investors was one from London who had decided to invest in the food-processing sector.

“The investor had discussed the investment proposal with me. He was so eager that he had gone to the extent of explaining to me how eating tomato without seeds was good for health,” he said.

Patowary said a certain Shetty was going to take over the two paper mills in the state. He said Shetty was so rich that “Rs 2,000 crore for the government of Assam was like Rs 2 to him.”

“Around four days ago, he called me up and said this was not the right time to come to Assam. I tried to convince him but he said he made a mistake by planning to invest in Assam,” the minister added.

On the government’s plans to form a conducive atmosphere to attract investment, Patowary said everyone should join hands.

“The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is peaceful now. But will anyone go to invest there? The perception of Assam that has been formed in the minds of the investors because of anti-CAA protest should go away. Only then can we hope for good days,” he said.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) said Patowary’s statement was a “big joke” and dared the government to publish a white paper on the names and the number of companies which have withdrawn their investment proposals from the state because of the protests.

“His statement is a big joke. We challenge the government to publish a white paper to clarify how many companies have withdrawn their investment proposals, their names and from which countries they are, because of the anti-CAA protests. The government should also mention how much investment it had attracted during the past three years before the protest. Instead of giving vague statements, the government should present facts with documents,” said AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi.

The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), one of the leading anti-CAA groups, said it was the Centre and the state government that are responsible for the agitation in the state.

“We started our agitation only after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed. Before that we did not agitate,” AJYCP general secretary Palash Changmai said.

Changmai reminded the government that a number of companies had sold their gardens much before the anti-CAA agitation erupted in Assam.

“We doubt whether the government had got any investment even after holding the investors’ meet, Advantage Assam,” he said.