CHANDIGARH MAY 8: Deputy Chairperson of the Shareholders Committee of Class India, a Germany based group in combine harvesters Ms.Cathrina Class today called on Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh Badal here at his residence. Ms. Class along with Group Executive Vice President Mr.Jan Hendrik Mohr during a breakfast meeting with the chief minister apprised him about the assembly line operations which had started from Morinda based plant on Wednesday. They invited the Chief Minister to inaugurate the manufacturing operations which was slated on 15th October, 2008.
Taking part in deliberations, Ms. Cathrina hoped that the wide product range of combine harvesters offered by the group would cater to the needs of all segments of farming community. She said the Crop Tiger 30, Crop Tiger 60 and Crop Tiger Tera Trac would put the conventional agriculture in the country’s largest agrarian state in the most mechanized and scientific mode thereby making agriculture economy far less labour intensive and highly productive besides depleting residual standing crops. She expressed keen desire to visit rural Punjab to assess first hand information on farming community, their needs and its applications which could be translated into effective instruments of macro applications through research and development of Class Germany.
The Chief Minister appreciated the group’s concern in setting up a full-fledged plant at Morinda with both assembly line and manufacturing operations with in the record time of just 8 months; probably it was the shortest ever period to launch a mega project of its kind in the state. He also urged the visiting delegation to introduce agricultural equipment/machines for paddy transplantation and cotton picking as both these operations was labour intensive. He also asked the M/s Class India to introduce a new range of tractors with features of combine harvesters having different types of blades for the use of small and marginal farmers at competitive price.
Mr. Badal also asked Mr.Cathrina to send a deputation of specialized drivers and mechanics to train our youth as drivers and mechanics which would provide them assured employment based on the certification/accreditation to be issued by Class Germany. He said that since Punjab was pre-dominantly an agrarian state could provide an assured market to the group besides generating tremendous direct and indirect employment potential through setting up of ancillary units in the state.
Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Principal Secretary to Chief Minister DS Guru, Principal Secretary Industries SS Channy, Director Industries VK Janjua, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister AK Mahajan and Head Class India Operations Pardeep Malik.