Myth of Punjab’s industrial growth shattered with 93 % fall: Manpreet

Chandigarh, 23 July: People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal today said with 93 per cent fall in fresh investment in the state during the last eight years, the myth of state’s industrial growth that was created by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal stood shattered. The situation on the farm front was no better. Punjab had turned into the region where the industrialists fear to tread, he added.
“The state government can’t challenge the study by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) that has reached the conclusion that the new investment in the state has drastically fallen from 36,650 crore in 2007-08 to a meagre Rs 2600 crore in 2014-15, a fall of alarming 93 per cent. Not only this. It is the decrease from Rs 7200 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 2600 crore in 2014-15 that casts further reflection on the functioning of the state government. This has happened despite the industrial summits organised by the state government where tall claims were made while there is nothing on the ground”, said the former finance minister.
He felt it was the dip in overall growth rate that was a matter of concern. As per the Assocham report, the growth rate was 10.2 per cent in 2006-07, 4.6 per cent in 2012-13 and 5.3 per cent in 2014-15.
He questioned the defence taken by the government spokesperson attributing this situation to depression saying Punjab was not alone that was affected by the situation and other states had registered growth of 44 per cent during the same period in industrial investment.
He said the state government’s argument also stood demolished by the fall in the rate of growth in the farm sector as the contribution of this sector to the state’s gross domestic product had declined from 33 per cent in 2004-05 to 20 to per cent in 2014-15.
Manpreet said the Akali Dal-BJP government in the state started on the slogan of development in 2007 but constructing a few flyovers was not the only development as it was the state of economy that was the true index of growth. He attributed the increasing unemployment in the state to the fall in investment. He asserted more jobs could not be created without capital investment but the state government had failed miserably to lure industrialists and the reasons were too well known.