'Centre to leave no stone unturned to speed up development'

The Centre will leave no stone unturned to further speed up the development process in Punjab, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
Jaitley was here in connection with the 'Bhoomi Poojan' of new civil air terminal at Kandhola village near Adampur.
Addressing a state-level function at Adampur grain market, Jaitley said the air connectivity in Punjab would open new vistas of development as the state would have better connectivity than any other state in India.
Terming Punjab as the major beneficiary under the new policy of the Union government to connect small towns, he said two out of three newly sanctioned airports were set up in Punjab at Bathinda and Adampur.

Hailing efforts of the Punjab government for overall development, Jaitley said that after the dark decade of terrorism, SAD-BJP combine under the leadership of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal ensured the atmosphere of peace and prosperity by engaging all communities and making them equal partners in the overall prosperity of the state.
Hitting out at the Congress, he said that the state did not witness even a single development project under the Congress-led government during 2002-07.

Jaitley also said Punjab has attained the numero uno position in the area of core infrastructure in a survey conducted by agencies of Union government on the parameters of road network, power generation, urban and rural development.

Referring to the Congress regime during 2002-2007, the Union Minister said that "there was only single pointed agenda and that was to crush the political opponents by indulging in vendetta politics and during this tenure Punjab didn't witnessed even a single development oriented project".
Earlier addressing the gathering, Sukhbir Badal said that being a land locked state, the SAD-BJP government had set out to make Punjab the best state in terms of air connectivity and focused all its energies towards this goal which has resulted in Punjab being the best state having air connectivity in the nation.
He said, "It was the long pending demand of the people from NRI belt and now this airport would facilitate businessmen, traders , NRIs and even people from the adjoining states."

Terming SAD-BJP alliance as the one truly devoted to development, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the alliance would register third consecutive victory in the coming assembly elections and "last rites" of AAP would be performed in Punjab after the polls.
Thanking the Union Government for giving special attention towards Punjab, Sukhbir said the Airport Authority of India (AAI) will initially construct an airport terminal and a parking bay, for which the Punjab government has acquired 40 acres land with the consent of the owners.
He further elaborated that around 55 to 60 lakh people from Doaba region are settled abroad who have to face a lot of inconvenience to reach their homes, which would now be a history.

Ensuring the people about the speedy work on the project, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said that within a year, this the project would become a reality.
The new civil airport terminal would have 5,000 sqm meter building capacity in 40 acre of land in first phase, besides parking bays for A-320 type of aircrafts.
Earlier an MoU was also signed between Punjab Government and Airport Authority of India.