Patanjali Ayurved, an Indian FMCG company, will set up a Food Park at Ludhiana while ITC is coming with a food processing unit in the State, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said here on Wednesday.
“Patanjali approached the Punjab government and expressed desire to set up a food park in Punjab,” Mr Badal said while making a presentation on ‘Perspective on development and governance in Punjab for the last nine years’.
He said “the company (Patanjali) is impressed with the policy on industry in the State” and would “set up a Food park in Ludhiana.”
The Deputy Chief Minister said ITC is coming up with a food processing unit in the State.
With zero tax policy on food processing units, several giants like Pepsi, Coke are coming into this venture, he said.
“Patanjali will lay the foundation stone of the food park in April,” he said, adding that the multi-branding in the food processing industry is benefiting the State in a “big manner.”
“The overall target through food processing in the state is around Rs 1 lakh crore this year,” he said.
Mr Badal who is also the president of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) described his government’s nine-year rule as “fully satisfactory”.
“I am satisfied with my tenure and what I have achieved,” he said, adding that the state had shown unprecedented development during the SAD—BJP regime.
Punjab is slated to go for polls early next year.
Rebutting the claims of opposition parties that Punjab is debt-ridden, he said that “we managed to pull the State from bad to progressive phase.”
“In the last nine years we have made historic achievements in comparison to what earlier governments did for the state,” he said.
The SAD president said that he was “happy with the performance” of the state government and exuded confidence that SAD—BJP alliance would form the next government again.
Hitting out at his political opponents, he said that they brought bad name to the state by “false propaganda”.
Highlighting the development initiatives taken by his government in the past nine years, the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister said “We have crossed all limits of development...we have gone beyond expectations.”
He dismissed the opposition allegations that Punjab is bankrupt, had poor infrastructure, there is poor governance and industry is migrating out of the state.
The VAT collection by the state government amounted to Rs 70,000 crore, the Deputy Chief Minister said.
Rejecting the allegations that Punjab government is selling lands to pay salaries to its employees, he said that government owned agencies are developing barren lands and selling these to generate revenues.
Holding that the net debt on the state is to the tune of Rs 1,12,366 crore, Mr Badal claimed that it had increased only by Rs 50,000 crore in the last nine years and is much less than Gujarat.
He alleged that the previous governments at the Centre “discriminated” against Punjab. Implementation of report of state’s fifth pay commission was a big reason behind growing debt on the state, he said. -- PTI
