Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
CHANDIGARH, October 29: Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today questioned the misplaced hype created by the government over the promised investments during the last two days of the “Investors’ Meet”, asking as what was the status of the earlier commitments and incentives to the existing industry which is reeling under serious crisis.
“Let the government give details about the Rs 65,000 crores investment commitments made during the previous investors’ summit, most of which remain unfulfilled”, Capt Amarinder said, while expressing serious doubts about the seriousness of these commitments and MOUs signed at the summit.
He observed that the very fact that the entire emphasis of the government was on encouraging youth to go abroad and that too for menial jobs like those of drivers and construction workers speaks volumes about its ability and confidence in generating jobs which the promised investment should otherwise have created in Punjab itself.
“You don’t need to announce that you are training construction labourers for Saudi Arabia in an Investors’ Meet, it simply betrays your weakness and lack of confidence”, he remarked, while adding, “when rest of the country was exporting trained scientists, doctors, engineers and IT professionals to countries like the US, Akalis have reduced Punjab to the level of exporting labourers and drivers to do petty and menial jobs in Saudi Arabia and they seem to be taking pride in it”.
He said, the current summit had only betrayed the classic and characteristic paradox of this government that while the existing industry was either shutting down or moving out, the government was trying to invite others to invest. He said, offering lucrative incentives to attract fresh investors was fine but what about the existing ones, particularly those in the small and the medium sector, which are suffocating and dying.
“Even if these commitments are fulfilled which, going by the past experience, looks quite unlikely, these may not make much difference as these are mostly in the tertiary/service sector”, he observed, adding, Punjab needs to encourage primary and secondary sector, agriculture and manufacturing, which drive growth both in terms of economy as well as employment.
He said, most of the commitments made during the summit were just routine and there was nothing exclusive about these for Punjab like Reliance Industries setting up the nationwide 4G service across the country. “What is so special about Punjab that the government will claim it to be an exclusive achievement?” he asked. Similarly, banks opening extra branches was not going to make any significant difference to the state’s economy.
