Industrial Giants Join Hands To Put Punjab On Fast Track Of Industrialization
Sukhbir Meets Top Industrialists Seeking Their Investment In Punjab
5 Dariya News
New Delhi 26-May-2012
The Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today at a marathon meeting with major industrial houses of the country with the focus to attract investment in Punjab by offering qualitative initiatives to achieve the target of Rs. 1 lakh crore in a three years, putting Punjab on accelerated track of Industrial growth. In a interactive meeting with Industrial giants at Kapurthala House, New Delhi including, Malwinder Singh of Fortis Healthcare, Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero Group, Gautam Thapar of Ballarpur Group, Kamal Oswal of Nahar Group, Rajiv Singh and Mohit Gujral of DLF Group, Atul Punj of Punj Llyods, Rakesh Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel Group, Neeraj Saluja of SEL Manufacturing, Manoj Gaur of Jay Pee Group, Rajinder Gupta of Trident Group and Ashok Nambiar representing Raunak Enterprises, in which Member Rajya Sabha Naresh Gujral, Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh, Principal Secretary to Deputy Chief Minister P.S. Aujla and Mrs. Kalpana Mittal Baruah, Principal Secretary Investment Promotion also participated, Badal, who is also holding the charge of Investment Promotion said that after making qualitative improvement in governance, his focus was to make Industrialization of Punjab as engine of growth to provide employment to the youth besides giving a fillip to economic growth of the state. The meeting today decided to come out with a detailed plan for setting-up a industrial clusters, setting-up two modern townships, putting Amritsar on international tourist map, taking major initiatives for skill development of the youth to make them employable in the industry and setting-up a ‘Smart City’ in Punjab, setting up of Medicity and Educity in Greater Mohali Area. The meeting also constituted a Steering Committee for improving civic infrastructure of Corporation Towns that would have three members each from Government as well as industry side. Besides this four sub-committees on infrastructure, industry, medical and on Skill Development and IT were also constituted, which would give their suggestions by the next meeting. Badal said that Punjab is on the driving seat with initiating historic reforms in Local Government, Revenue, Transport, Excise and Taxation, Power, Police, Education and Health by making systems transparent, civil servants accountable to the public. He said that it was only state in the country that has put timelines for 67 citizen services failure of adhering to which would attract punishment to the guilty. He said that now he was focusing on ushering in plethora of reforms in Industry Department to make the working of this department transparent and investor friendly. It was also decided in the meeting that Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal would lead delegation of entrepreneurs to Pakistan in the month of August to explore the chances of improving bilateral trade ties with the neigbouring country. The Deputy Chief Minister said that the Punjab Government after focusing on strengthening infrastructure, initiating the power projects to make Punjab power surplus besides putting administrative reforms on track and now as these initiatives were near fructification, the time has come to put Punjab on fast track of industrial development. Badal said that he was seeking investment from major industrial houses and Punjab would offer all total support to them to set-up their manufacturing base in Punjab. Badal said that he has proposed to give broadband connectivity to all 12000 plus villages of Punjab, encourage telemedicine in the remote villages besides making all towns wi-fi in next three years. Badal said that Punjab Government has already made preparation to acquire substantial land to create a land bank for upcoming industry. He also said that next cabinet meeting would come out with a ordinance on constitution Special Purpose Vehicle for upkeep and maintenance of existing Industrial Areas.