by Punjabnewswire4u
NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH, OCT 13
The
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, today held a detailed
brainstorming session with global industrial giants to give final touches to a
blueprint aimed at holistic development of the state with focus on education,
health, industrial development and infrastructure. In the 3rd
meeting of Punjab Advisory Council held here today in which industrial giants
like Mr. S.K. Munjal of Hero Group, Mr. Malvinder Singh, Fortis Health Care,
Mr. Naresh Gujral, Member Parliament, Mr. Mohit Gujral, Vice President DLF
India, Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal of Airtel Bharti Group, Mr. Kamal Oswal of
Nahar Industries, Mr. Neeraj Saluja of SEL Ltd. and Mr. Rajinder Gupta of
Trident Group besides senior members of bureaucracy led by Chief Secretary Mr.
Rakesh Singh participated, the group held six hour intensive discussion to
finalize a model of development for Punjab that would prepare Punjab for
challenges of next 50 years.
Chairing
the meeting along with Member Parliament Mr. Naresh Gujral, the Deputy Chief
Minister said that he had intentionally constituted investment advisory council
to take qualitative inputs in the governance of the state from all sections of
the society. He said that as per decision in the last meeting the Punjab
industry department has already finalized a plan to set up industrial clusters
and work on acquisition of land for Derabassi cluster has already started and
another clusters were being planned in under developed area of district Ropar,
Hoshiarpur, Pathankot and Gurdaspur. He said that the Punjab government had
already promulgated an ordinance to create a special purpose vehicle for
handing over the maintenance of industrial areas to industrialists themselves. Welcoming
the suggestion for coming out with the plan for boosting agro based industry in
the state, Mr. Badal said that the value edition of agriculture which was
presently below 6% has to be taken to minimum 40%. Mr. Badal said that the
Chief Secretary had recently visited Pakistan and they have already agreed to
allow export of 6,000 items equivalent to Karachi port through Wagah border and
India and Pakistan both have agreed to upgrade infrastructure on the border to
meet the requirement of expected fivefold increase in export. He said that
export from Wagah border that was presently Rs.2 billion would rise to Rs.10
billion in next 3 years and Punjab has to be prepared to reap its benefits to
its fullest extent. Mr. Badal said that besides encouraging farmers to go for
vegetable cultivation for export, our industrial and trade sector has to remain
prepared for new opportunities in the horizon. He said that he would visit
Pakistan next month along with industry delegation to work out the modalities.
Constituting
sub committees on skill development, IT and IT enabled services, Industry,
Healthcare, Infrastructure and Education, Mr. Badal said that these sub
committees would deliberate every week to finalize their plans up to November
and based on the reports of sub committees Punjab government would tweak its
policies, firm up legislative business and draw a comprehensive holistic development
policy for the state and Punjab government would organize road shows in various
states and countries to attract investment in infrastructure, industry and
trade sector showcasing the policy frame work.
Focusing
on the Education sector, Mr. Badal said that Punjab was planning edu-cities in
Mullanpur, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar and he has already invited top
universities of the world to set up their universities on the pattern of Oxford
in the proposed edu-cities. He said that he has already called a meeting of
education department to revamp the primary and secondary education system making
every teacher accountable.
Emphasising
on skill development of 1 lac youth, Mr. Badal asked Technical Education
department to focus on employability of the trained youth and firm up “hub and
spoke model” for upgradation of 1396 ITIs. Vowing to make Amritsar as
international tourist hub, Mr. Badal said that a heritage village, a boutique
hotel in Gobindgarh Fort and entertainment hub in Wagah border would put
Amritsar on international tourist circuit.
Stressing
on planned urban development, Mr. Badal said that he has already finalized 50
urban states and new estate at Anandpur Sahib has also been planned.
Unveiling
the integrated development plan for 142 cities at the cost of Rs.8745 crore,
Mr. Badal said that Punjab would be first state that would hand over total
development of the city to one agency. He said that the Punjab government had
already approved posting of Chief Financial Officer for every urban planning
body and a senior IAS officer would be appointed mission head for integrated
urban development project. Mr. Badal said that he would soon finalize
metropolitan planning committees for Sahibzada Ajit Sing Nagar, Amritsar,
Patiala, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Moga, Kapurthala and Pathankot and he
would seek the services of experts in these committees to give quality input on
various fields.
The
Chief Secretary informed that Punjab government has already tied up with RBI
that was instructing all nationalized banks for online disbursal of various
subsidies to the citizens through banks. He said that by 31 March Punjab plans
to cover 90% citizens under Aadhar Scheme and by integrating Aadhar with bank
accounts subsidy payment would be facilitated. He said that Punjab was also
working on multi-model travel plan for big cities of the state.
Underlining
the need for generation of employment avenues, Mr. Badal said that focus area
of industrial development would be IT, Food and Agro processing, textile and
automobile ancillary industry.
Prominent
amongst those who participated in the meeting included Dr. Parmod Kumar, Mrs.
Kalpana Mittal Barua, Principal Resident Commissioner Delhi, Mr. S.S. Channy,
Principal Secretary Technical Education, Mr. Ajay Kumar Mahajan, Special
Principal Secretary to Deputy Chief Minister and Mr. B. Purshartha, Director Technical
Education.
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