CM seeks special agri package from Centre

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday called on Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya to discuss central support and collaboration in the holistic development of the state, with special measures to help out the beleaguered farming sector and special packages for debt waiver, industrialisation and border area development.

An official spokesperson said the Niti Aayog agreed to visit Punjab for detailed discussions with the state government for the development of the region through crop diversification, industrial revival and other programmes.

While the Niti Aayog assured the CM that Punjab would not be impacted by industrial incentives given to the states of Uttarakahand, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, Amarinder suggested a special industrial package for Punjab along a 40-km belt in the sensitive border area.

There is a strong need, he said, to encourage micro, small and medium enterprises in Punjab with similar incentives in the border belt and in the sub-mountainous area along the hilly tracts to promote employment and bring buoyancy in the tax revenue of the state.

He said tt was also necessary for balanced regional development, he said, while seeking a special one-time infrastructure development package for improving the border areas, with border roads to be taken up for special development and maintenance under the national highway programme of the country.

The CM urged the Centre to also promote a petro chemical hub adjoining the Bathinda refinery for manufacturing valueadded products. The Centre should provide the same level of tax incentives and promotional schemes to this region as is given to the hilly and north-eastern region, he added.

HITS BACK AT SAD, BJP

Lashing out at the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP for their criticism of his government’s two-month rule, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said their brazen lies were completely belied by the facts and ground reality.

In a statement issued here, Amarinder expressed shock at the “shamelessness” with which the Akalis, led by former CM Parkash Singh Badal, and their ally BJP were “resorting to blatant falsehoods in a desperate bid to befool people”.

Their criticism, he said, was particularly impertinent in view of the fact that it was their misrule of 10 years that had plunged the state to such abysmal depths of despair on all fronts, with a mega debt burden compounding the problems of the Congress government.

“Despite the mess it had inherited, our government has been successful in bringing the state out of the throes of devastation,” said the CM.

There is a strong need to encourage micro, small and medium enterprises in Punjab with similar incentives in the border belt and in the submountainous area along the hilly tracts to promote employment. CAPT AMARINDER, chief minister