Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar on Monday said that in wake of immense social, economic and geographical importance of Punjab, the state must be developed as special industrial zone.
“In the upcoming session of the Parliament, the Congress party will raise the issue to give a special economic package to state,” said Jakhar, who is also Gurdaspur MP.
He said: “Punjab, being a border state, is sword arm of the country. Apart from facing invaders in the past, it has also suffered due to black days of terrorism. Unemployment is a big threat to the socio-economic structure of the state as earlier due to it, militancy badly disturbed the state and now menace of drug is a big danger to young generation of the State.”
“The industrial growth of this state can create employment opportunities for youth. Therefore, to attract new entrepreneurs in the state, the Central Government must give special industrial zone status to the state for industrial growth,” he added.
likewise, Jakhar said that the hard working farmers of Punjab have made the country self-reliant in the food grains, and for that, they even depleted the natural resources like water and soil of their provinces.
“As the farmers of the state have grown food grains for the entire nation, the Central Government also has the responsibility to help the state government for the debt waiver of the farmers of the state, because if the farming sector of Punjab collapses, food crisis can be restored in the country,”.
Jakhar said that six districts of Punjab are sharing their boundaries with Pakistan and thousands of hectare agriculture land of farmers is on the other side of the fence at the international border.
“Farmers can not cultivate their fields due to restriction enabled on them due to security reasons and hence these farmers should be compensated for this by the Centre. All these issues will be raised during next monsoon session of the House by Congress,” he added.