CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress today charged the SAD-BJP government with wasting public money on agriculture summit, alleging that no progress has been made on the MoUs signed during the meet.
In a statement issued here, Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa, citing information gathered through RTI, alleged that no progress was made on MoUs signed during the agriculture summit.
He said as per an RTI reply obtained from the Public Relations Department, the state government had spent over Rs 34 lakh on publicising the agriculture summit held in February this year.
Bajwa claimed that as per RTI reply, only 9 MoUs were signed during the summit and those too were merely based on "Expression of Interest".
One of the MoUs did not even propose the amount of investment or employment potential, he said. He said MoUs signed during summit had proposed investment size of Rs 2,385 crore and potential employment of 17,700 people.
The PPCC chief said another RTI reply sought from Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion regarding physical progress of these MOUs stated that the government had nothing to say on this.
"The RTI replies stated that the physical progress of these MoUs may be considered as nil.
"The office of Managing Director, Punjab Agro Industries, did not reply at all," he said.
The Punjab Congress President said the proposed Agriculture SEZ in Kandi and Attari areas did not materialise, which had been promised by SAD in poll manifesto during the last Assembly elections.
The RTI reply given by agriculture and horticulture departments stated that they had no information on these SEZs, he said.