Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash
Singh Badal on Wednesday strongly urged members of the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Commerce to take up various pending
issues of the state with the Central government for early
solution.
Among the issues raised by the state are for setting up
of steel silos, a package for agro industries development,
relaxation of the norms to set up SEZs and export of brown
rice and Kinnow.
The Chief Minister had hosted a dinner in honour of the
visiting Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce led by
Chairman Shanta Kumar here yesterday, an official spokesman
said today.
The other members of the committee included Prof S K
Saidul Haque, Deoraj Singh Patel, Kalikesh N Singh Deo, K N
Balagopal, Kamla Devi Patle, O S Manian, K P Dhanapalan,
Yashvir Singh and Sanjay Dina Patil (all MPs).
The Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and
some Punjab ministers were also present.
Taking part in the deliberations, Badal informed the
committee that the state was presently facing an acute
shortage of storage facilities for foodgrains purchased by
state agencies on behalf of FCI, which resulted in heavy
depletion of foodgrains.
To overcome this situation, the state government had
chalked out a comprehensive plan to set up about 100 steel
silos in the private sector as per the requirement of the
state, he informed.
He said that the rental cost worked out on the silos was
more than the FCI reimbursements for godowns. The Chief
Minister said he had personally taken up this differential
rental cost with the Ministry of Agriculture and Planning
Commission, but the matter was still pending with the Centre.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 15:49