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Ministers counter Badal's allegation

Chandigarh: Taking strong exception to the statement by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Prakash Singh Badal that setting up mega projects in the State was a big scandal, the Punjab ministers and other Congressmen on Sunday said he was "disillusioned" by the development in the State.

"Mr Badal was disillusioned by the spectacular development in the state which has been possible due to the pro-people and visionary approach of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh," they said in a joint statement.

In the statement issued here, Food and Supplies Minister Avtar Henry, Excise and Taxation Minister Sardul Singh, Punjab Pollution Control Board Chairman Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Parliamentary Secretary Power and Housing Surinder Dawar, stated that the previous government headed by Mr Badal had failed to bring a single small scale industrial unit in the state while the present Congress regime had been successful in brining Punjab back on the track of rapid development.

They said that these mega projects had been approved by an Empowered Committee headed by Capt. Singh along with cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats including the Chief Secretary of the state as its members, after following the prescribed procedure.

They further said that Mr Badal was "deliberately creating unwarranted hype in the media over this issue out of sheer frustration".

Terming Mr Badal as cynical, these leaders stated that the senior Akali leader was in the habit of distorting facts to his own advantage.

To substantiate their claim, they said that the empowered committee had so far approved 95 mega projects worth Rs 43,000 crores with an employment potential of 7.5 lakh jobs, while Mr Badal had wrongly put these investment figures as merely Rs 15,000 crore.

"With a healthy and investor-friendly atmosphere in Punjab the land prices in the state have sky-rocketed and the land which was worth Rs 25 lakh to 40 lakh per acre has now gone up to Rs one crore and above, and all this happened due to the catalytic growth of industrial sector in the State," they said.

These leaders further said that Mr Badal was issuing such malicious and politically motivated statements aimed to divert the attention of the people from the core issues of development because SAD at this juncture did not have any political agenda to pursue except to tarnish the image of the Congress party. -- UNI

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