Newly sworn-in Union minister for Food Processing Industry Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday visited the holy city to pay the obeisance at Harmandar Sahib and also paid her respects to the martyrs of the freedom struggle at Jallianwala Bagh.
While talking to media at the information centre of the Golden temple Harsimrat said, "Now I have responsibility of the entire country as far as food processing is concerned. However, Punjab is in my heart. I know the problems of the farmers of Punjab and will take steps to mitigate them."
Discussing about her priorities, Harsimrat said, "As far as I am concerned my priorities are clear. I feel there is a lot of wastage of food grains and that diversification coupled with food processing is the need of the hour. I also feel that besides adding value to our farm produce we should also ensure that consumers get the same at the most reasonable cost possible."
Interestingly the leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have been loudly taking up the issue of the violence against Sikhs in 1984 since long, however when questioned about what she planned to do to provide justice to the victims, she did not respond to the question but said she would do the required 'sewa' as stipulated by the almighty.
The Union Minister regretted that the people of Amritsar had missed a tremendous opportunity by failing to elect Arun Jaitley from Amritsar constituency. She, however, said that Arun Jaitley had assured her that he would remain in touch with Amritsar, maintain his house in the city and even work for its development.
The Union minister, who was accompanied by Punjab Revenue minister Bikram Singh Majtihia, was given a warm welcome by the people besides Akali leaders and workers at the Darbar Sahib complex.
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Meanwhile, Sukbir Singh Badal, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister, took a stock of ongoing development projects in Amritsar in a high level meeting on Thursday. He announced that Punjab Government would soon form Solid Waste Management Wings in Local Bodies to make sure all its cities and towns are garbage free and steps would be taken to use the garbage for power generation.
Reviewing the status of ongoing projects in Amritsar city, Sukhbir Badal said SAD-BJP regime was committed to include Amritsar in the list of developed and beautiful cities of the world and they will leave no stone unturned to achieve it.
He also reviewed the ongoing construction of Golden Temple Plaza, Central Jail project, District Administrative Complex project, Amritsar-Rajasansi and Amritsar-Ajnala roads and four laning project of Fatehgarh -Churian road.
He asked the authorities concerned to expedite the pace of work. He directed the officers concerned not to cut the trees without dire necessity and there should be multiple planting of saplings against the number of slaughtered trees.