Rahul Gandhi makes "wild" statements, says Sukhbir Badal

MUMBAI: In the financial capital to seek investments in his state, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today attacked Rahul Gandhi, saying Congress vice president makes "wild" statements without going into the depth of issues.

"Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that 70 per cent of the youth of Punjab are on drugs. Actually, whatever paper is put in front of him, he starts reading without going into the depth of it," Badal, on a two-day road show here, told reporters.

He said age profiling done during a survey of drug addicts in Punjab had shown that 70 per cent of the addicts were youth and Gandhi picked up the number to make a "wild statement".

Gandhi had kicked up a controversy last year with his remark at rally where he said, "what is happening to human resources in Punjab. Seven out of 10 youth have the problem of drugs."

The roadshow was organised ahead of an investment summit in Punjab and Badal was answering queries about the human capital potential of the state.

The Deputy CM met top industrial leaders including Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani and Anand Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra.

Badal was non-committal when asked about the targeted investment from the summit or from the meetings he had over the last two days in the financial capital.

According to a state government statement, Reliance's Ambani made a slew of announcements including taking up a petrochemical project and expanding RIL's facility at Hoshiarpur.

The statement said RIL desires to train more than a million diploma engineers in home services, as it believes in imparting real life skills to create jobs.

Mahindra promised to set up a world class university at New Chandigarh in personal capacity and also assured to provide end-to-end solutions in marketing and agro processing of fruits and vegetables, it said.

"Mahindra said the university would be an umbrella institution for five engineering colleges being established by the Mahindra group in different parts of the country in technical collaboration with Ecole Centrale Paris of France.