Chandigarh Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal strongly urged members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on commerce to take up various pending issues of the state, including industrial package on the lines of hill states, setting up of steel silos, package for agro industries development, relaxation of the norms to set up SEZs and export of brown rice and Kinnow, with the central government for an early solution. The chief minister has asked the central government to provide a separate package for development of agro industries in the state as Punjab is a major contributor to the central food bowl. He demanded that as there is a great demand of brown rice in central Asian countries like Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, the Centre should allow rice manufacturers to export brown rice and superfine rice which would not only ease out the storage problem, but also earn foreign currency for the country. Likewise Kinnow could be exported to Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Ukraine from Punjab in the winter season, if the Centre provide reasonable airfreight assistance to exporter and growers of Kinnow enabling them to start exports. Referring to the scarcity and high value of land in Punjab, Badal asked the panel for recommending a relaxation in the prescribed government norms for setting up of SEZs. According the Central government norms, the minimum land requirement for IT sector is 10 hectare, warehousing sector is 40 hectare, agro sector is 100 hectare and multi-product industry is 1,000 hectare. Badal also raised the issues of strengthening marketing infrastructure of dairy cooperatives by providing refrigeration system. He also demanded freight subsidy for export of wheat products from Punjab as its is a land locked state. These demands were raised by the Badal at a dinner hosted by him in honour of the visiting Parliamentary Standing Committee on commerce led by chairman Shanta Kumar at Punjab Bhawan on Tuesday. The other members of the committee included Prof SK Saidul Haque, Deoraj Singh Patel, Kalikesh N Singh Deo, KN Balagopal, Kamla Devi Patle, OS Manian, KP Dhanapalan, Yashvir Singh, and Sanjay Dina Patil (all MPs).