CHANDIGARH: Punjab Finance Minister Mr. Parminder Singh Dhindsa said the keen interest shown by Tata Sons and a host of other reputed companies including Infosys and Biocon to invest in Punjab had frustrated Pradesh Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa’s attempts to scare away industry by making unfounded and negative comments about the State’s economy.
In a statement here, the finance minister said the Punjab Congress chief had been systematically feeding misinformation to the media ever since Punjab Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s highly successful visit to Bangalore where he interacted with heads of top companies including those of Infosys and Biocon. “This despite the fact that Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy expressed interest in establishing a 100 acre campus at the Knowledge Park in Mohali and Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was keen to take steps to set up a manufacturing facility in Punjab”.
Mr Dhindsa said while these steps did fluster Mr Bajwa, the latter lost further touch with reality by claiming that Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was trying to mislead industrialists. “This happened on the day Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus P Mistry came to Amritsar to inaugurate his company’s mall in the city as well as the announce that the company was seriously considering investments in several areas including complete management of cities in Punjab and also management of integrated transport facilities in Ludhiana and Amritsar besides other proposals”.
Mr. Dhindsa revealed that the industrial policy was on the final stage and it would be notified shortly. He said the new policy aimed to incentivize investors be it small, medium or big industries. He said the state had now reached a level where it could showcase itself with pride having top class infrastructure, highest road density in the country, five operational and upcoming airports and availability of sufficient power and adequate land bank.
Meanwhile in a scathing comment on the previous Congress government led by Mr Amarinder Singh, the finance minister said if it had done something Punjab would not have missed the IT boom. He said the SAD-BJP government was however taking concrete steps to invite investment and was organizing the “Progressive Punjab-Global Investment Summit” on December 9 and 10 at Mohali with a view to showcase the investment opportunities available in Punjab in various sectors especially in IT and Electronics.