Punjab villages get NRI boost

Despite the odious ring to their activities because of the Malta tragedy of 1996, not to speak of the frequent immigration rackets that have been reported on in the media, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) of Punjab are contributing significantly to the development of their native villages.

The state government, a few years ago, started a matching grant scheme for NRIs who wanted to invest in the development of their villages, and the scheme proved attractive for NRIs, especially in the Doaba region.

Under this scheme 50 per cent of the development expenditure will be borne by the government and the rest by the entrepreneur.

Among others, Lord Swaraj Paul, who is from Jalandhar, recently set up the Caparo School of Manufacturing and Material technology, investing Rs 28 crore (Rs 280 million).

Another NRI from the Doaba region, Kulwant Singh Virk, established an ultra-modern amusement park in Jalandhar. In 1997 he came back to Punjab from Canada and has been in India since there. A denizen of Virk village near Phagwara, he developed an amusement park called Wonderland in an area of 13 acres near Lambra village on the Jalandhar-Nakodar road.

Sital Singh, who migrated to the UK in 1976, launched several mega housing projects and constructed several apartments in the peripheral areas of Chandigarh at an estimated cost of more than Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).

Bal Sidhu, who is from Dhet village in Kapurthala, was ten years old when he left for the UK in 1968. Sidhu had been a successful surgeon, a lyricist, and a prolific and a dynamic investor with diverse business interests.

He had successful businesses in the UK, Spain and Bulgaria. But patriotism made him return and he and his partner invested Rs 300 crore (Rs billion) in Jalandhar. They bought two theatres in Jalandhar -- Lal Rattan and Jyoti --and those they are planning to convert into shopping-malls with multiplexes.

Another prominent NRI, Jasbir Singh Khangura, a hotelier and fondly called Jassi Khangura, after surrendering British citizenship, came back to Ludhiana to contest assembly elections.

Many thought the decision unwise, but he won the Kila Raipur seat with a convincing margin of about 100,000 votes in February. Singh has started a chef-training course at his Majestic Park Plaza Hotel in Ludhiana, under which the rural youth are being provided training for three months and they undergo another three months' training at the Sarovar Park Plaza in Noida.