Punjab polls: Capt Amarinder Singh criticises Sukhbir Singh Badal's China visit

Taking a dig at Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's trip to China, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Monday alleged that he had gone to explore his "personal investment options and opportunities" there.

"...No doubt that Sukhbir having realised that he had exhausted all options of investment in Punjab and also the fact that he was going to have enough time post-2017 Assembly elections after getting defeated by the Congress, he was now looking at the business opportunities in unexplored places like China, where, he might be thinking, his investments will remain away from public scrutiny," Amarinder said. 

Badal currently is in China to showcase the State as an attractive investment destination. "I challenged Sukhbir to show a single penny worth of investment that he can claim he has brought to Punjab after the visit or during the last nine years of being in power," he said.

Singh alleged that the manufacturing sector, particularly the bicycle industry, was moving out to other states like Jharkhand and about 20,000 big and small industrial units were already shut down in Punjab. Taking a jibe at Sukhbir's announcement about setting up the "cycle valley" in Ludhiana, Capt Amarinder said, "it was not for the first time that catchy phrases were being coined in an apparent bid to fool people".

"What happened to the textile park in Ludhiana?" or may be you plan to set up the 'cycle valley' on the rooftop of the textile park," he questioned. "Earlier we saw much hyped investor summits without a penny of investment and now we are being made to believe that the investments will come from China," he alleged.