Reliance Industries to get 20 acres in Mohali

The government of Punjab has decided to provide 20 acres to Reliance Industries Ltd in Mohali to create a principal rural hub.

The chief minister of Punjab, Amarinder Singh, said six rural hubs would be ready by December, including the Mohali hub, and these will draw an investment of Rs 500 crore. The rural hubs will aim at holistic needs of the farmers and would also provide them training on new methods of agriculture.

He said land available with the Punjab Small Scale Industries Export Corporation (PSIEC) in Goindwal, Malout, Muktsar, Mansa, Tanda etc. had been lying unutilised for the past 10 to 15 years. The land represented a dead investment which was giving no returns to Punjab's farming community as so far no agri or rural based industry had come up at all.

It would now be sold to RIL thereby giving PSIEC some return on its investment and would also benefit the farming community in the surrounding area besides, PSIEC would also get a lump sum payment instead of small installments.

The chief minister said panchayats in the state were extremely keen that RIL should open procurement centers in their areas since the villagers in the proximate areas would benefit from remunerative crop returns & income and appreciation in value of their lands.

Panchayats were freely offering to sell their lands and the Deputy Commissioners were authorised to fix the appropriate rates for the same. Panchayats would also therefore benefit by having a large corpus of funds for developmental works.

He apprised that no concession was being given on Mandi fee, Rural Development Fund and Infrastructure Development cess on items such as FAQ wheat and coarse paddy.

On the other hand there was hardly any revenue coming to the State on other items such as fruits, vegetables etc. a lot of which had already been exempted thereby giving a concession on other items to RIL and other mega projects in the agri sector entailed no loss but would give long term benefits in terms of VAT and other revenue to the other State Government while farmers would also get much higher incomes.

The land proposed to be allotted to RIL in Mohali would serve as their major regional hub for high value and cold chain items. Once fully developed the Mohali Center would cater to over 50000 acres of land under high value horticulture. The additional annual income from this area to farmers would itself run into hundreds of crores. The biggest beneficiaries would be small and marginal farmers.

RIL would be running its own mandis for high value horticulture produce in Mohali and other areas their establishment was in the farmers interests and the land in Mohali had also been acquired keeping in view the need for providing marketing support to the farmers.

He said that the Chief Minister and his Cabinet were determined to push Punjab on the path of progress particularly in the agriculture sector and the Government would offer what ever incentives were appropriate to facilitate such projects.

He said that RIL was of course the largest project but there were many other mega projects also who would be given all facilities and help

It may be recalled that the mega projects worth Rs 57,000 crore cleared by the state government in the past six months were suspended by the Punjab Pollution Control Board on the direction of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests last month.

Talking to media on the sidelines of the foundation stone laying ceremony of Fashion Technology Park Mohali, Captain said that the state has been reeling under an acute power shortage.

He informed that the state government has decided to cut power supply to urban consumers and industries after 15 of June to enhance supply to the agriculture sector for the sowing of kharif crop.

Reacting upon the farmers' resentment on the acquisition of land by the Trident Industries in Barnala, he put the entire blame on his rival Prakash Singh Badal.

He said that his party tried his best to take the state forward but the opposition wanted to push the state on the back track.