Union Defence Minister Manohar Parikar has assured the Punjab Government to provide commercial status to defence airport at Adampur.Announcing this on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal maintained that the commercial status Adampur airport would give an impetus to economic activities in Doaba region besides facilitating the NRI belt on a large scale.Sukhbir, addressing ‘Samajik Adhikarita Shivir’ at Hoshiarpur as a chief guest along with Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Kumar Sampla, said he had personally raised the issue with Union Defence Minister and Punjab Government had also sent a letter to the concerned Ministry to use this airport for passenger activities.
Talking to the mediapersons, Sukhbir informed Punjab Government would spend Rs10,000 crore to provide basic infrastructure across the State, which mainly includes Rs4,000 crore projects for sewerage, drinking water, street lights in 150 towns. “The work in this regard would start from September. Rs5,000 crore project has also been sanctioned to provide basic infrastructure in rural areas,” he said. Making it clear that illegal mining would not be tolerated at any cost, Deputy Chief Minister said directions have already been issued to all the SSPs to register cases against the persons involved irrespective of their status.He also called upon the people to come forward to complaint directly to their concerned SSPs in case of illegal mining noticed by them.