Slamming the Congress led UPA Government for extending industrial tax concessions to Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that the Congress has backstabbed the state by keeping it out of the ambit of the package, despite repeated and earnest pleas of the Punjab government.In a statement issued here, the Chief Minister said that the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for extending the Special Package of Industrial Incentive for the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from January 7, 2013 to March 31, 2017 was clearly aimed at further derailing the industrial growth of Punjab. He said that by denying the incentives to Punjab, the Union government has hatched a conspiracy for sabotaging the plans of the state government to usher in an era of unprecedented industrial development by firming up investments worth more than Rs 65000 crore in recently concluded Progressive Punjab Investor’s summit. Mr. Badal said that the UPA Government was clearly working to a plan for inflicting economic devastation of the sensitive border state of Punjab through its deliberately ruinous policies.
The Chief Minister said that Punjab being a land-locked state along an active and hostile international border, had a much better claim on the tax concessions being given to its neighboring states. However, he said that by denying this status the Union government has once again proved that they inimical to the interests of the state. Mr. Badal asked the PPCC Chief Partap Singh Bajwa to conserve some of his lung power to speak against injustice to his state by his own party. “Or is your politics limited to providing a verbal cover-fire for the deadliest assault by the Congress-led government at the center to destroy the economy of your state, root, branch and fruit?” Mr. Badal asked the PPCC Chief.The Chief Minister clearly said that he was not against concessions being given to any state but only against the denial of similar concessions to Punjab which sits in the jaws of a hostile neighboring and in proximity to disturbed conditions along our internal borders with J & K. Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal also assailed the Congress led UPA government for denying the Industrial package to state. He said that even though Punjab deserves a special package because of several historical and geographical factors, they only demand a level playing ground. Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the Shiromani Akali Dal would not be a mute spectator to the injustice of the Union government against the state and they would take up this matter at the highest level to seek the similar package for the state.