Eulogising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [Images] for taking the state towards the path of development, cricketer-turned-politician and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday said that Punjab needed a strong political will for its progress.

"Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is an efficient man. There is a need for a strong political will to bring the two states (Punjab and Gujarat) on par," Sidhu, a BJP MP from Amritsar [Images], said.

"There is an urgent need to digress from agriculture to manufacturing and services sector in the state," he said.

Comparing the GDP of both the states, he said that while Gujarat had achieved a 11 percent GDP growth, Punjab was way behind at four percent.

Terming Gujarat as the country's growth engine, he said there was no power cut in that state while in Punjab, farmers were getting electricity supply for only two hours daily.

Criticising the state government, he said, "Now Punjab is under a debt trap of Rs 55,000 crore due to the populist measures taken by the government and lack of concrete policies".