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Amarinder gets a major boost

Staff Correspondent

Punjab Congress president agrees on Reliance project

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh got a major boost on Wednesday when the president of the State unit of the ruling Congress party, Shamsher Singh Dullo, also agreed with the proposal to allow Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to set up a chain of rural business hubs in Punjab.

Mr. Dullo's assent came after the Chief Minister made a presentation to members of his Council of Ministers and senior officers-bearers of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee here on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Dullo said the misconceptions he had about the project had been cleared with the Chief Minister's presentation.

He expressed confidence that the project would make a major contribution in improving the economy of the State, create major employment avenues, and farmers would receive considerable benefits.

Capt. Singh for his part reiterated that the State Government would take serious initiatives to ensure that the first phase of the project begins by December this year. He said the 20acre plot owned by the Punjab Mandi Board at Mohali would be auctioned publicly.

He pointed out that the State had already lost out to West Bengal, which through liberal concessions managed to corner the small car project of the Tatas. Earlier, the Council of Ministers in its meeting approved the creation of Tarn Taran district, which would comprise 493 revenue villages of three sub-divisions of Tarn Taran, Khadoor Sahib and Patti and be a part of Jalandhar division. The creation of this 19th district is in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev, which falls on June 16 this year.

Since the period of terrorism, Tarn Taran has been functioning as a separate police district within the Amritsar revenue district. The Council of Ministers referred about 9,000 terrorist-affected cases of involving a financial liability totalling Rs. 405 crore to the Union Government for providing ex-gratia and rehabilitation grant at par with 1984 riot victims.

The State Government has so far disbursed financial grant of Rs.168.32 crore to 8,416 victims of the November 1984, anti-Sikh carnage as per the recommendations of the Justice Nanavati Commission.

The Council of Ministers also agreed to pay compensation totalling Rs 3.65 crore to the 365 persons detained in the Jodhpur jail after Operation Bluestar of 1984, keeping in view the economic hardships suffered by them and their families.

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Amarinder gets a major boost

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