Badal claims projects worth Rs 7000 crore cleared

Chandigarh, June 11 (UNI) Claiming that Punjab was poised for ''a revolutionary transformation of its socio-economic landscape,'' Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said his government had succeeded in obtaining clearance for projects worth Rs 7000 crores in the first 100 days of its rule.

These projects include a network of six-lane and four-lane expressways for intercity transit in the state and major development projects under JNNURM for Amritsar and Ludhiana.

''Drastic recasting of development priorities and relentless pursuit of well defined goals in the first 100 days of the present SAD-BJP government had put the state on the path to recovery and placed it in a higher orbit of economic possibilities, the results of which would soon begin to show'' Mr Badal said while addressing a press conference here.

Claiming that his government had inherited a legacy of ''utter hopelessness and chaos'' in March, he said the state was under a crippling debt burden of Rs 52,000 crore. The state had slipped on all parameters of growth, with its overall standing declining from first to the seventh position, he said and added that in the per capita income standings the state had slipped to the fifth position.

For the first time in history, agriculture recorded a negative growth rate while the industrial growth rate was just 2.8 per cent, down from the 6.4 per cent mark that the previous SAD-BJP government had attained, he added.

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