Punjab Revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia today thanked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely for paving the way to make Amritsar a world class city by making the cause of Amritsar his own.In a statement on the eve of Mr Jaitely's visit to the historic city, the Revenue minister expressed his gratitude to Mr Jaitely for ending an era of discrimination against Amritsar during the decade long UPA rule by allocating money in the current year's budget to boost heritage tourism in Amritsar as well as make it an economic powerhouse and a technical education hub. The union finance minister had included Amritsar in the Rs 500 crore union heritage project besides announcing the extension of the national industrial corridor to Amritsar and allocated an IIM (Indian Institute of Management) to the city.
Majithia said the citizens of this border district were also profusely grateful to Mr Jaitely for the benevolence bestowed by him on the holy city. “This is the mark of a true statesman”, he said.Meanwhile Mr Majithia appealed to the Union minister to use his good offices for resumption of international flights from Amritsar. "The SAD- BJP government is committed to make Amritsar an international tourist destination as well as facilitate tourists visiting the city. Unfortunately discrimination during the earlier UPA rule led to cancellation of a key flight from the holy city. We urge Mr Jaitely to correct this wrong”. Mr Majithia said besides resuming the Amritsar - Birmingham – Toronto Air India connection, the Delhi- Melbourne - Sydney flight should be routed through Amritsar to facilitate NRIs. He also advocated starting a new flight to Bangkok and Singapore from Amritsar.
Extolling the brave sacrifices made by Punjabis in the border area of this district, the SAD leader said while Punjabis of this district had acted as a bulwark against foreign aggressors they had not got their just due during UPA rule. He said the border area was bereft of industry and its youth were facing unemployment. "Some of its farmers also face problems in tilling their land situated across the barbed wire fence with Pakistan". He said due to these myriad set of problems Amritsar rural area was a fit case for grant of special funds so that it could be brought at par with other more advanced parts of the State and country.
Mr Majithia also thanked the Union government for the steps taken to repatriate its nationals from war stricken Iraq. He said while 954 out of the total 1494 Punjabis stuck in Iraq had returned to their homeland due to these efforts, others were still stuck there. He urged Mr Jaitely to use his good offices to repatriate Punjabis still stuck in Iraq back to their near and dear ones at the earliest.