Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday, October 30, promised that the party's next government in Punjab would provide power to the industrial sector at Rs 5 per unit, besides creating a new department named 'Build Punjab' to provide time-bound clearances to builders and giving top priority to the establishment of new IT and Artificial Intelligence facilities in the state.
Source: IANS via NewKerala
Badal made the announcements at an open interaction with trade and industry in Chandigarh, held along with the party's trade and industry wing president N.K. Sharma, IANS reported. The Hindu carried the same announcements, including his remark that industrialists would be allowed to install their own solar power plants.
Source: The Hindu via News4Exchange
Power: Rs 10-12 today, Rs 5 promised, Rs 1.50 with solar
Badal said industry had become unviable in Punjab due to high power rates of Rs 10 to Rs 12 per unit. Besides bringing the rate down to Rs 5 per unit, he said, the next SAD government would allow industrialists to install their own solar power plants, which he said would bring their power rates down to Rs 1.50 per unit. These are the SAD president's claims and promises, made as an election pitch; how they would be funded was not spelt out in the reports.
'Build Punjab' department and clearance reforms
Badal announced that, like the Invest Punjab department established by the previous SAD government to ensure time-bound clearances for new investment, a Build Punjab department would be established under the next SAD government. "The department will be liable to issue all permissions to builders within one month," he said. He also announced that change of land use (CLU) charges would be reduced and the entire process of granting CLU would be made completely transparent, and that a one-time settlement scheme would be announced for all irregular colonies.
Self-attestation, online permissions and sector promises
Badal said the SAD believed in trusting the citizens of Punjab and would enforce self-attestation to remove paperwork and make all permissions online so that no citizen had to go to a government office for official work. He said the next SAD government was committed to giving a 75 per cent subsidy for the purchase of milch animals and asserted that Section 307 would be imposed on all those who indulged in adulteration of milk — both reported as his statements at the interaction.
He also said the SAD government would take up the issue of the freezing of the 2.5 per cent commission of arthiyas (middlemen) in foodgrain procurement, that the interests of small transporters being made to pay four years' tax in advance would be looked into, and that chemist shop owners' complaints that habit-forming drugs were being sold from online platforms in Punjab would also be looked into.
The pitch comes ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, in which the SAD is seeking to return to power after losing to the Aam Aadmi Party in 2022. No response from the AAP government to Friday's announcements was reported in the sources reviewed for this story.