SAD-BJP demands special industrial package

Accusing the union government of meting out "step-motherly treatment" to Punjab, the ruling SAD-BJP alliance today demanded that the Centre provide tax concessions to the state at par with those granted to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The alliance submitted a memorandum to Governor Shivraj V Patil here today seeking "his (Governor's) advice to the Union Government to reconsider their decision and provide concessions to Punjab at par with neighbouring states without any further delay," a SAD statement said.
The memorandum alleged "discriminatory policies followed by Congress-led UPA government while extending tax concessions to the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand."

The joint delegation was led by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and chief of Punjab unit of BJP Kamal Sharma.
Badal said the SAD-BJP government was not against the grant of tax concessions to any neighbouring state, but the denial of these incentives to Punjab was a "clear-cut case of bias and step-motherly treatment" to the state.
The SAD leader said the state government had been successful in firming up investment worth more than Rs 65,000 crore in the recently concluded 'Progressive Punjab Investor's Summit'.

"The action of the Congress-led central government to extend tax concessions to states neighbouring Punjab and denying the same incentives to us seems to be a well- entrenched conspiracy to sabotage the plans of the state government to usher in an era of unprecedented industrial development in the state," he alleged.

He also demanded a special industrial package for Punjab.
Later, talking to media, Badal said the alliance wanted to make it clear that it would not stay a mute spectator to this alleged injustice of the union government and would raise this issue in the coming Parliament session.