Times of India: Chandigarh: Friday, 18 July 2014.
Quoting
information procured under RTI, Punjab Pradesh Congress president Partap Singh
Bajwa on Thursday slammed the state government for wasting public money on
investment summits as most memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed at these
summits had not materialized.
He claimed
that as per RTI reply obtained from information and public relations
department, the state government spent more than Rs 34 lakh on publicity on
agriculture summit conducted in February this year.
RTI replies
revealed that only nine MOUs were signed during the summit and these were based
on mere expressions of interest and talked of proposed investments only, he
said.
An MOU signed
with MD group, which claimed to be a memorandum of commitment, had not
mentioned the amount of investment or employment potential. It did not refer to
any time limit whatsoever. The other MoUs talked of proposed investments of Rs
2,385 crore and potential employment of 17,700.
The PPCC
chief said that 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 replies stated that the physical progress of
these MOUs may be considered as nil. The office of managing director, Punjab
Agro Industries, had not replied at all in this regard, he alleged.
Bajwa alleged
that 40,580 delegates attended the agriculture summit from across Punjab as
disclosed in the RTI reply and 961 buses were deployed by the government to
transport the delegates to the summit venue. . The total number of panelists
was 138, the number of delegates registered on spot with PAIC were 6,130 with
211 delegates having been registered online.
As per Punjab
Agro Industries Corporation, Rs 30.6 lakh were spent on the 3-day summit.
Expenses incurred by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industries had not been
included in this.
.JPG)
.JPG)
