Punjab heading for doomsday on industry front: Bajwa

Claiming that as many as 18,770 industrial units had been closed in the past seven years in Punjab, Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa today said the state was heading for doomsday on industry front.
"Punjab is heading for doomsday on industrial front. According to information received under RTI Act, during the seven years of the SAD-BJP regime as many as 18,770 industrial units have been shut down, and in contrast no major industry has been set up," Bajwa said in a statement here.
The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president said the information acquired from the state Industries Department "is shocking and reveals the true picture", contrary to the claims of the SAD-BJP government.

He said the RTI information had also revealed that the Progressive Punjab Investment Summit held in Mohali, a brain child of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, was nothing but a "prank" and a "publicity stunt" on the people.
Bajwa claimed the Industries Department had failed to supply information regarding MoUs signed by the government with industrial houses at the Mohali summit.
RTI activist Jasdeepak Singh, working for the PPCC, had been denied information on the MoUs within the stipulated time period of 35 days, the statement said.

Bajwa said the Industries Department had informed that since 2007 in Amritsar district 8,053 small, medium and large industrial units were closed, whereas only four new medium and big industrial units have come up.

He said Sukhbir was "telling white lies" to the people of the state regarding the so-called investment coming to Punjab.
He said majority of small-scale industrial units in the state have closed. The hand tool industry, which was a source of employment to lakhs of people in the state, is now completely closed.
He alleged that the SAD-BJP government was being run on "whims and fancies" and wild imagination of Sukhbir, who was working overtime to ruin industries in the state.