Taking serious concern over the delay in providing requisite approvals for various mega projects by the concerned departments, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today directed the Industry department to find out the cause for such inordinate delays and make the erring officers accountable for such lapse. Disclosing this here today, the spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said that the Chief Minister was presiding over the Empowered Committee on mega projects which was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Forest Minister Chunni Lal Bhagat, Food and Civil Supplies & IT Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Finance Minister Mr. Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Industries and Technical Education Minister Mr. Madan Mohan Mittal, Local Government Minister Mr. Anil Joshi and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Industries NK Sharma.The Committee also approved the department of Information Technology as Nodal Agency for matters relating to Mega/Super Mega Projects of IT/Knowledge Industry/Parks.Referring to the path-breaking Initiative taken by the government to cut red tapism through a slew of governance reforms, the Chief Minister envisioned Punjab as the most preferred investment destination in the country that had established Bureau of Investment Promotion headed by him with Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukh Singh Badal as its co-chairman and Mr. Anirudh Tiwari as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to give clearances in fast mode to the entrepreneurs resulting eminent industrialists and entrepreneurs from the country and across the globe evinced keen interest to set up their ventures in varied fields.
Badal asked the Housing department to grant various approvals pertaining to housing projects in a time bound manner to avoid any unnecessarily delays on the part of the state government for these projects.The Empowered Committee has also gave in principle approval to reduce the cancer disease fund for the delayed projects from 0.5 percent to 0.25 percent or maximum Rs.25 lakh besides enhancing the period for one year (as per previous policy) delay up to two years.It was also approved that the ongoing Quark City phase I project would be carried out as per previous agreement between the state government and M/s Quark City India Private Limited, whereas the phase II project of the Quark City would be given cleared as per the new investment promotion policy of the Punjab government introduced to provide all requisite clearances for setting up of any industrial, housing, agro & IT sector units through a single officer i.e. CEO of Bureau of Investment Promotion Punjab. The bureau would re-examine the phase II project and put it on fast track to finalize necessary approvals and concessions.
Reiterating his firm commitment to put Punjab on the strong pedestal of Industrial development on the national, Deputy Chief Minister also assured that the state government would welcome the companies for setting up their ventures in the state and assured all sort of support and cooperation.Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Chief Secretary Mr. Rakesh Singh, Financial Commissioner Development Mr. Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr.SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary IT Mr. Vishawajeet Khanna, Principal secretary Health Mrs. Vini Mahajan, Secretary Housing and Urban Developmet Mr. A Venu Prasad, Director-cum-Secretary Industries & Commerce Mr. Raminder Singh, Director IT Mr. Raj Kamal Chaudhary and MD Punjab Agro Mr. KS Pannu.