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Chandigarh, January 25: The Punjab Congress Legislature Party chief Mr Charanjit Singh Channi today lambasted the Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal for perpetrating biggest fraud on the people in the name of investment summits/ Progressive Punjab summits as nothing had materialized by way of investment even from the 2013 conclave till today. Mr Badal went ahead to spend more than 20 crore again on the investment summit in 2015 when the previous one yielded nothing on ground. He should tell the people of Punjab about the motives behind these summits. Was the overall development of the state in concern or there was some personal motive behind these summits, Mr Sukhbir Badal should clarify the wasteful expenditure of the public exchequer.
“Despite the fact that not a single MOU had been implemented on ground out of the total that were signed during 2013 summit, the state government went ahead with this tamasha in October, 2015 too. Surprisingly only 57 investors from the first investor summit in 2013 have only approached the government and their proposals are being processed yet. Out these 57, 14 MOU”s are even not clear in which district they have planned this investment. The people have a right to know as to the fate of the MOUs signed at such summits, as going by the information available, nothing concrete is there on the ground. The impression being given that these investment summits were game changers that earnestly needs capital investment”, he added.
Mr Channi said information to this effect provided to Dr Jasdeepak Singh, RTI activist, by the department concerned provides all the details about the companies that signed the MOUs in 2013 and it has been stated that these “applications are under process”, thereby making it clear that not a single paisa has been invested by these companies in Punjab. The reply was received towards the end of 2015.
He said even out of total MOUs which the government claimed to have signed worth investment of Rs.66,936 crores, Rs. 31847 crore were in the housing sector.
He said going by the information available, the investment summits were just hoax as the exercise had failed to facilitate any investment in the state. This state of affairs was shocking, as Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal had been projecting the industrial summit as his big achievement. He exploited the platform to project himself rather than being sincere about bringing investment in the state.
Mr Channi rapped the Deputy Chief Minister for playing with the sentiments of the people by raising false hopes of investment leading to employment opportunities for political purposes. He described it was extreme example of politics of opportunism.
He slammed Mr Sukhbir Badal for wasting more than Rs. 20 crore of the public money on organizing the investment summits that had just gone down the drain. As per the RTI reply, the expenditure done by various departments for the investment summits amounted to more than 20 crore under different heads.
