The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that the Reserve Bank of India report which puts Punjab among the three best investment destinations in India during 2012-13 should serve as an eye opener to the Congress leaders who never tire of painting a negative picture of their own state.
Punjab finished ahead of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal, to be one of the three most attractive investment destinations in the country, according to the figures released by the Reserve Bank of India.
“The Congress should realize that Punjab has done it despite deliberately adverse and ruinous policies of the Congress-ruled center against Punjab, such as denial of concessions granted to our neighbouring states and the refusal to provide freight equalization.”
Badal said that perfect law and order situation, an atmosphere of peace and communal harmony, ideal labour relations, top-grade infrastructure, improved power scenario and an investment friendly industrial policy were some of the reasons that resulted in pushing Punjab up among the top three destinations in the country.
“The Congress leaders see nothing of this and are busy trying to portray Punjab as the worst state in the country. They should now try and contradict the report of the Reserve Bank of India, if they can,” said the Chief Minister in a statement.
“The Congress leaders in Punjab have been spending all their energies on running down their own state and its achievements. They are out to defame their own state as a part of a well-planned agenda to stop investments from coming here. Their speeches and actions had adversely affected the investment climate in the state in the past as potential investors developed wrong and unfriendly notions about us, we performed creditably despite all this,” said Badal.
The Chief Minister asked the Congress leaders, especially the PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa, to read the Reserve Bank of India report. Punjab finished among the three best investment friendly destinations this year, with just two percent of the total area of the country and 1.5% of its total population, Punjab accounted for nearly 13% of the total investments made in the country during the period, says the RBI report.
The Chief Minister said that Punjab’s performance was all the more creditable when one considers that India on the whole slipped badly on the investment sector. “At the all India level, numbers confirmed the go-slow on investments.” according to the RBI report. “In the light of this, Punjab’s showing is not only heartening but also an indicator of better things to follow. Investments are the key denominators of growth and the trend indicates that we have turned the corner towards economic resurgence. I am not saying we do not face challenges. But we have defied heavy odds to emerge as a front runner in the country. I hope the Congressmen, who spend sleepless nights criticizing their state’s economy will sleep peacefully and quietly now,” said the CM.
Badal said that with the new Investment Promotion Policy of the state, announced by the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the state is bound to go even higher on the national scale. “The Congress leaders should now start taking pride in their state and thank the people of Punjab, if not the government, for the major improvements in the state’s standing on the investment chart,” Badal said.
