IEP Chandigarh, February 20
Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda raised the demand for the resignation of the minister accused of molestation in the Assembly. He said that till the allegations are investigated, the Chief Minister should seek the resignation of the minister or the minister himself should resign on moral grounds. “To save the minister accused of molestation, the BJP-JJP government is tearing apart morality in public life. Due to this attitude of the government towards crimes against women, Haryana today lags behind all the states in the matter of women’s safety,” he said, reacting to the Governor’s address on the first day of the budget session of the Vidhansabha today. After the address, the Congress MLAs raised the demand for the resignation of the accused minister in the House, but the government was not ready to give up its stubborn stand. Party MLAs walked out of the house in protest.Speaking on the Governor’s address, Hooda completely rejected the claims made by the government in the address. He said the government got the Governor to make false claims, which are not visible anywhere on the ground. “In the speech, the government tried to present its failures as achievements. The reality is that in the last 8 years, the present government worked to push Haryana backward on every front. The government should be ashamed of the law and order situation in the state, but it is patting itself on the back. While the social progress report of the Union government itself says that Haryana is at the bottom in terms of civil security,” he said. “Similarly, this government gave protection to the corrupt throughout its tenure, instead of taking action against corruption. For this, the investigation report of scams was suppressed. Instead of giving employment to the youth, the government worked to eliminate posts in government departments. Today, about 2 lakh posts are lying vacant in the state. Huge scams were done in the name of recruitment. Jobs were sold like goods at a grocery store. Educated youth are being exploited through Kaushal Nigam for low wages without any social security,” he said. “Instead of building new schools in BJP-JJP, already established schools are being locked. Instead of giving pension to the elderly in the guise of family identity card, social security to the elderly is being cut. Instead of giving relief to the poor, their rations are being cut,” he said. “Through PPP, this government deprived the backward people of reservation and the poor from beneficial schemes. Thousands of families were pushed to the margins, by showing the annual income of lakhs of rupees to the small and poor,” he said. Hooda said that big claims were made about the farmers in the address, but the truth is that during the coalition government, most of the atrocities happened with the farmers. “They neither got the MSP of the crops, nor did they get fertilizers on time, nor were they given compensation for the damages. On top of that, the government has entangled the farmers in the web of ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ portal,” he said. “In the address, the government was also praised for Panchayati Raj, but the reality is that today elected heads of panchayats are agitating against e-tendering. The government has made the Panchayats powerless. They cannot get development work done in their villages even if they want to,” he added.Referring to the employees, Hooda said that by lathi charge on the protestors gathered in Panchkula demanding old pension scheme, the government proved itself to be anti-employee. “While the government should immediately implement OPS like Congress ruled states. If the BJP-JJP does not do this, the OPS will be approved in the first cabinet meeting as soon as the Congress government is formed,” he said. “Claims about sports and players seem hollow, because the current government has divided the Padak Lao, Pad Pao system made by the Congress government. First, the right of appointment to higher posts like DSP was taken away from the sportspersons, and then 3 percent sports quota in jobs was taken away. Even when our wrestlers were sitting on a dharna in Delhi against the Wrestling Association, the government did not fulfill its responsibility. This government has only broken the morale of the players every time,” he said.
