Investors' meet: Amarinder asks about earlier promises

Congress today questioned the "misplaced hype created" by the Badal government over the promised investments during the investors' meet and sought details of Rs 65,000 crore investment commitments made during the previous summit, which it alleged remain unfulfilled.
Expressing doubts about the seriousness of the commitments and MoUs signed at the summit here, Congress' Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha, Amarinder Singh said, "let the government give details about Rs 65,000 crore investment commitments made during the previous investors' summit, most of which remain unfulfilled".
He observed that the government's entire emphasis was on encouraging youth to go abroad for menial jobs like that of drivers and construction workers, speaks volumes about its ability and confidence in generating jobs which the promised investment should otherwise have created in Punjab itself.

"You don't need to announce that you are training construction labourers for Saudi Arabia in an Investors' Meet, it simply betrays your weakness and lack of confidence," he said adding that "when the country was exporting trained scientists, doctors, engineers and IT professionals to countries like the US, Akalis have reduced Punjab to the level of exporting labourers and drivers to do petty and menial jobs in Saudi Arabia and they seem to be taking pride in it".
Singh, in a statement here said, the current summit had only betrayed the classic and characteristic paradox of this government that while the existing industry was either shutting down or moving out, the government was trying to invite others to invest.

He said, offering lucrative incentives to attract fresh investors was fine but what about the existing ones, particularly those in the small and the medium sector, which are suffocating and dying.

"Even if these commitments are fulfilled which, going by the past experience, looks quite unlikely, these may not make much difference as these are mostly in the tertiary/service sector", he observed, adding, Punjab needs to encourage primary and secondary sector, agriculture and manufacturing, which drive growth both in terms of economy as well as employment.
Singh said, most of the commitments made during the summit were just routine and there was nothing exclusive about these for Punjab like Reliance Industries setting up the nationwide 4G service across the country.

"What is so special about Punjab that the government will claim it to be an exclusive achievement?" he asked.
Similarly, banks opening extra branches was not going to make any significant difference to the state's economy, he said.