Support existing industry before wooing investors, says Khaira

A couple of days before the two-day Progressive Punjab Investors Summit opens on December 9 to attract mega industrial projects, the state Congress on Saturday questioned the focus of Industrial Policy-2013.

A couple of days before the two-day Progressive Punjab Investors Summit opens on December 9 to attract mega industrial projects, the state Congress on Saturday questioned the focus of Industrial Policy-2013.

HT Image

Trashing Punjab's new industrial policy, the state's opposition party said it didn't address the problems of the existing units. "Before running after corporate honchos for investment, the junior Badal (deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal) should ameliorate the lot of the fast-declining native industry," said state Congress spokesman Sukhpal Singh Khaira.

Alleging that the policy notified on Thursday was self-contradictory and tailor made to suit the vested interests of the ruling Badal family, Khaira said tourism sector had been given maximum concession in it to help the latest upcoming Metro Eco Greens 7-star luxury resort project of the Badal family at Pallanpur village near Chandigarh.

The inclusion of health industry, he said, would favour only the rich and contradict Parliament's Clinical Establishment Bill and Governance Reforms Commission recommendations about regulating private-sector healthcare. He referred to the exodus of industry from the state since the Badal government's taking over in 2007.