Unfolding his development agenda, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday vowed to make Punjab a leading industrial state of the country. He further assured to make Malwa region a textile hub of the country and Amritsar and Ajitgarh as IT destinations of the world.
Addressing an impressive gathering at a political conference at the Diwan Hall of Takht Damdama Sahib on Baisakhi, he said that the new industrial focus of the Punjab government was aimed at reducing red tape, making single window functional, besides initiating reforms to make the state industrial and investment-friendly.
For the first time, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal skipped the Baisakhi rally of the party reportedly due to another function at Amritsar.
Sukhbir said that a complete overhaul of industry department was in the offing and the state had finalized a plan to create land bank to provide land to the investors off the shelf. Similarly, time-bound and deemed clearance were certain novel initiatives that the state was taking to cut through red tape that was stunting industrial growth.
The deputy chief minister alleged that the Bathinda refinery, a Rs 21,500 crore project, was stalled by Captain Amarinder Singh for five years but had now started functioning to supply kerosene, petrol and other petroleum byproducts to various parts of the county, besides exporting its products.
Announcing his plan to make Malwa the textile hub of the country, Badal said that he had inaugurated a textile plant and Malwa would soon have biggest denim plant in the country that would directly manufacture international quality denim from raw cotton.
The deputy chief minister alleged that the Bathinda refinery, a Rs 21,500 crore project, was stalled by Captain Amarinder Singh for five years but had now started functioning to supply kerosene, petrol and other petroleum byproducts to various parts of the county, besides exporting its products.
Announcing his plan to make Malwa the textile hub of the country, Badal said that he had inaugurated a textile plant and Malwa would soon have biggest denim plant in the country that would directly manufacture international quality denim from raw cotton.
He said that textile industry was most suitable for Malwa region as it was employment intensive and would provide direct employment to over one lakh youth, mostly girls, in a year. He said that textile industries worth Rs 60,000 crore would be set up in the next two years in the textile hub of Malwa.
Announcing Amritsar and Ajitgarh as the future IT hubs of the world, Badal said that both these cities with proximity to international airports, world class road infrastructure, road connectivity coupled with human resource back-up would soon beat Bangalore to emerge as most favoured IT hubs.