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COURTING NRIs? Punjab fails to give NRI
power connection,
he goes to Rajasthan
WSN Bureau
For want of an
electricity meter,
Punjab
has lost foreign direct investment worth Rs 100 crore. Jalandhar-born
Canadian millionaire Narinder Kaushik has decided to move his Rs
100-crore luxury hotel project from
Punjab
to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
What ticked him
off was the manner in which his father Hans Raj Kaushik was made to
suffer for over 3 months for getting an electricity meter
transferred in his name. The objective finally wasn't achieved.
Owner of 11-Eleven liquorstore chain in the Canadian
province
of
Alberta,
Kaushik was pained to see his father travelling everyday for three
months to the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) office at
village Kaki Pind near here to present a minor requisition.
His father had
returned to Jalandhar from Canada six months ago and wanted the
electricity meter at their Chuggittee house here to be transferred
in his name. "A PSEB clerk refused to clear the case," he alleged.
"If this is how long it takes to transfer a power connection to
consumer, it is futile to expect better performance from the state's
bureaucracy in dealing with a big project. I would now invest Rs 100
crore not in Jalandhar, but in a hotel project at Jaisalmer in
Rajasthan.
"The Jaisalmer
Municipal Corporation (JMC) has offered me four sites for concession
and final negotiations are slated for February 7," said Kaushik,
whom Canada had granted permanent resident status in 2001 for
investing 6 lakh Canadian dollars in its economy. Kaushik, 41, said
Jaisalmer had offered him single-window clearance for his hotel
project, exemption from change in land use and curtailed charges for
building plan approval and electricity connection.
"The Rajasthan
official had desperately wanted me to set up this hotel on over two
acres in his state. I hope to begin construction in the next
Financial Year for an initial foreign direct investment (FDI) worth
Rs 50 crore," the businessman said.
Punjab
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had a long battle ahead against
own bureaucracy before the state could catch up with Rajasthan and
hope for more NRI investment, he added. The Punjab Government had
announced a number of initiatives recently for the NRIs, but the
majority of the expatriates had viewed these sceptically.
Alumnus of local
Khalsa
College,
Kaushik owns liquor stores in the Calgary, High River, Langdon and
Airdrie towns of Alberta province in Canada and hopes to open a
liquor store each at Bonous, Clairshomes and Calgary. The investment
would be worth 1.2 million Canadian dollars. The work at Bonous is
underway and the store is likely to open by April.
(Courtesy
Hindustan Times)
6 February 2008
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