Captain to meet Canadian PM in Amritsar tomorrow
CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday announced that he will meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his visit to Punjab on February 21, ending days of uncertainty.
Amarinder’s announcement on Twitter, followed by a statement from his office, came days after t he Canadian media reported that Trudeau, who is on a visit to India from February 17 to 23 and is to visit Amritsar on February 21, will not meet Amarinder. Trudeau and his family are scheduled to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple. The temple is considered the central shrine of the Sikhs, a community which, within the larger Indo-canadian community, plays a significant role in the country’s power circles, reflected in the fact that Canada has four Sikh ministers.
Officials said the chief minister would hold a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister at a hotel in Amritsar after Trudeau pays obeisance at the Golden Temple, a visit that the visiting PM aims to keep a “quiet affair”, officials said.
This represents a thaw also because Amarinder had refused to meet Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan during the Punjabi-origin leader’s visit to the state last year; and even accused Sajjan of being a “Khalistani sympathiser”. In 2016, when Amarinder Singh was the state Congress chief, he had written a stronglyworded letter to the Canadian PM, lodging a protest on being denied permission for interaction with NRIS in Canada in the run-up to the assembly polls. Days before Trudeau’s visit now, his Sikh ministers had issued a statement denying any backing for the secessionist movement.
Amarinder has now directed the state administration to roll out the red carpet for the visiting dignitary, and deputed a team of top administrative officers to receive him. He wrote on Twitter, “Look forward to meeting Canadian Prime Minister @Justintrudeau in Amritsar on Wednesday. I’m hopeful that this meeting will help strengthen the close Indo-canadian business ties as well as the deep-rooted people-topeople relations between our two countries.” At the their meeting, Amarinder and Trudeau are expected to discuss steps to “intensify the close relations between the people of the two countries”, according to a spokesperson of chief minister’s office (CMO). “Punjab has deep roots with Canada, where a large Punjabi community is settled, and has always striven to strengthen connect,” the spokesperson quoted Amarinder as saying.
Opposition SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal is expected to welcome the Canadian PM at the Golden Temple. “He will honour Trudeau as party president of the Shiromani Akali Dal ,” said spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema. Our government has completed 10 months in office. In these months, we have tried to understand the requirements of Uttar Pradesh, the steps needed so that UP becomes part of the list of developed states in the country and how to generate employment... we have discussed these issues in detail.
As a result of these discussions, we have come up with the plan of ‘one district, one product’ and the next step in this direction is the UP Investors Summit. UP has endless possibilities. I am surprised that even after abundance of natural resources, in the last 15 years we witnessed political anarchy, law and order problems, and corruption. This has damaged the image of the state. The environment in the state has changed. People no longer fear red-tapism, investments will not suffer, no criminal or mafia, anti-social and anti-national can operate in UP. We are the first state that made changes in labour laws, we have made a friendly atmosphere to bring investments in the state. The result is in front of us. In the past 10 months, we have decided on 14-15 policies for different sectors, especially policy Our focus is on who takes part in the investor summit, to ensure that Mous that are signed are implemented and then the Global Investor Summit will be organised next year. We are already working in this direction. Our team is working on this. The group that is part of the investor summit will be divided into two different teams. The first will work for the ‘one district, one product’ plan of the government to strengthen traditional work in UP. The second team will ensure that the chief secretary, secretary and principal secretary implement the Mous. They will be made accountable for the work completed.