SAD asks Charanjit Channi to behave responsible and not defame Punjab

Chandigarh, January 25 – The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked Congress legislature party leader Charanjeet Channi to behave responsibly as a Punjabi and not defame the State and its people by presenting one sided data which did not reflect the investment coming into Punjab by way of the last two investment summits.

In a brief reply to Mr Channi’s “avowed data” which SAD senior leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal said denoted nothing, the party also asked Channi to contact the biggest industrial houses in Punjab and ask them whether they had lied when they had disclosed their investments in the State.

The SAD leader said Reliance Industries head Mukesh Amabani had recently announced that his company had invested Rs 3,900 crore in Punjab recently. “Was he lying”. He said similarly Airtel had invested Rs 1,398 crore in Punjab. He said major investors last year included Garg Acrylics who had invested Rs 322 crore, Nahar which invested Rs 150 crore, International Tractors Rs 213 crore and Madhav Alloys which spent Rs 109 crores besides thousands of crores spent by other investors including big solar companies. Besides this there were other reputed companies like Cargill which had even operationalised its cattle field plant. “Would Mr Channi go to Bathinda and check it out?”

Giving more details, Mr Maheshinder Grewal said Infosys had purchased land for its software centre at Mohali, done the “Bhoomi Pujan” and was now constructing the boundary wall for the project besides finalising construction plans. “Would Channi like Punjabis go believe that Infosys is running a scam and will not establish a software centre at Mohali”.

The SAD leader said the dynamic manner in which Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal presented Punjab’s case to various companies and won them over was clear from ITC’s example. He said the leading company, which had committed to invest Rs 7,500 crore in Punjab, had recently announced that it would double its investment to Rs 15,000 crore.

RBI had also declared Punjab as third best state in the country for Investment.

Punjab which was earlier known as the state heralding green revolution is now recognised as the state leading in industrial revolution because of the success achieved in the summits. He said major investors like Infosys, Kansai Nerolac, Apollo Hospitals, Ultratech Cement, Adani Logistics, ITC Ltd., Cargill, Punj Lloyd, TI Cycles, and Nutricia International Ltd. have already started their project works.

Advising the CLP leader to approach the Punjab Invest office to get the entire details of investments done, those on the pipe line and the applications which were being processed, he also asked him to refrain from defaming the State which had even been rated highly for attracting investment and for ease of doing business by the RBI.C