Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today took strong exception of ‘false’ claims by SAD-BJP Government on new investment in Punjab in its publicity campaign which is misleading and wastage of public funds for self-glory.AAP state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich said that SAD-BJP government has started media campaign to project two failed Progressive Punjab Investors Summits in 2012 and 2015 as their major achievement. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has claimed 519 MoUs were signed worth more than Rs.1.87 lakh crores but he covered up the fact all MoUs remained on the paper and no company ever made any major investment.AAP Convener also countered the claim by Sukhbir Badal that Punjab was ranked number one in ease of doing business. He said that Punjab had ranked at 16th place among all the states in a study by the World Bank and KPMG on ease of doing business and reforms implementation, conducted in June 2015.
Waraich said that investors were scared to set up industry in Punjab even the NRIs who attended two NRI Summits hosted in 2007 and 2012 had hesitated to invest in Punjab due to large scale corruption, organized crime syndicate and poor road infrastructure. He said that SAD-BJP government has definitely made a record by allowing 20,000 Proclaimed offenders roam free and letting gangsters run away from jail. He said that Sukhbir Singh Badal had claimed that as a consequence of these summits 96 industrial units were “being” established. He said that even after ten years of its rule, the SAD-BJP government is not in position to name any industry of worth naming which came to Punjab. He said that there was long list of industries that have migrated out of Punjab during the last ten years.He said that about 20,000 industrial units had shut their business in Punjab in the last ten years. He added that in reply to a RTI inquiry in 2015 Punjab Industry department has stated that 18770 industrial units had closed in Punjab between 2007 and 2015. In Mandi Gobindgarh alone, over 600 industries were shut down during five year span from 2011 to 2015.
As a foot rule of 50 employees per unit losing job, the number of retrenched workers in 20,000 units is 10 lakhs thus effecting more than 40 lakh members of their families.He said that Punjab government itself in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court of India had admitted that 274 industrial units from the state had shifted to the neighbouring hill states due to hill area incentives given to Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand states. He said that it was blatant lie that any new industry was set up in Punjab in these years.Waraich said that while Sukhbir Badal was showing mirage of development to peope even though already the Industry in Batala, Mandi Gobindgarh, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mohali are the victims of the wrong industrial policies of the State Government. The SAD-BJP government had failed to develop a business friendly atmosphere and Sukhbir Badal worked only to promote family businesses.He said Punjab had the story of missed opportunities. He said that Software giant Dell had closed its business from Mohali in May 2014, the Mahindra and Mahindra which got a plot for IT unit in Mohali never turned up to set up the unit. He said that Sukhbir Badal must explain that why companies like Infosys and IBM have proffered Chandigarh to Mohali despite incentives promised at Investment Summits.