IEP Chandigarh, January 12, 2023
Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has said Haryana is not running a double engine, but a two-faced government. This government has done the work of increasing inflation 3 times, debt 4 times, crime 5 times and corruption 6 times in Haryana, while the government’s achievement in terms of providing employment and development remained zero.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, he said Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana was a complete success. “There was tremendous participation of the people in both the phases, lakhs of people everywhere joined the yatra,” he said.
He said Rahul Gandhi interacted with all sections of Haryana and people opened their hearts out to him. “The first phase started from Nuh, where people raised the problems of roads, electricity and water. During the journey from Nuh to Ambala, the poor condition of roads showed us the quality of governance. Except the National Highway, all other roads have only potholes. From the roads, to the IMT built during the Congress tenure, the condition is bad today. The government is unable to handle even the schools, colleges, ITIs and hospitals built by the Congress,” he said.
The former Chief Minister pointed out that during the yatra, Rahul Gandhi met ex-servicemen and medical students protesting against the bond policy. “The government put pressure on the students and ended their agitation. Congress demands that the bond policy imposed on medical students should be withdrawn. Employees’ delegation met Rahul Gandhi and raised the issue of OPS.
He assured the employees would be given the benefit of old pension like in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Himachal, when the Congress government is formed in Haryana. “In the second phase also, Rahul Gandhi met many social and civil organizations including farmers, farmer leaders, workers, employees, ex-servicemen, former vice-chancellors, businessmen, MSME operators, chaukidars, sarpanch, sanitation workers, MNREGA workers,” he stated.
“All the farmer leaders including Rakesh Tikait and Yudhveer Singh put forward many problems of the farmers including the guarantee of MSP. Farmers also talked to Rahul Gandhi regarding the prices of sugarcane in the state,” he said.
During the yatra in Karnal, Rahul Gandhi met the delegation of OBC community and de-notified tribes and listened to their problems. “In Karnal, he met Haryana’s Bhim awardee, Arjuna awardee, Dronacharya awardee players. Boys and girls talked to Rahul Gandhi about the closure of government schools and the shortage of teachers in schools. The youth delegation put all the issues, including rising unemployment and corruption in recruitment before Rahul Gandhi. The youth and ex-servicemen voiced their views against the Aggiveer scheme,” he stated.
Hooda said during the yatra people also raised the issue of Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP). “People have named it Permanent Pareshani Patra because it is being used by the government to cut the ration cards of 10 lakh families. The income of the family has been shown to be increased by 8 to 10 times. Even the ration cards of the children of the age group of 4 to 5 years were cut by showing the income of 15 to 20 thousand Rupees,” he stated.
“Till now, the government has cut old age pensions of about 5 lakh elderly people, destitute children and widows because of PPP. The poor families are being deprived of welfare schemes by showing inflated and imaginary incomes,” he said.
Presenting the figure of rising debt, Hooda said that at present Haryana has a debt of Rs 3.25 lakh crore and a liability of Rs 1.22 lakh crore. “If the government feels that this figure is not correct, then it should immediately issue a white paper,” he stated.
Hooda said that according to the CMIE report, Haryana tops in the country with 37.4% unemployment rate. “This is 4.5 times more than the unemployment rate than the country. Even in such a grave situation, the government is playing with the future of the youth through Skill Employment Corporation. Instead of providing permanent jobs, the contract system is being promoted,” he stated.
Speaking on the allegations against the Sports Minister, Hooda reiterated that he should resign on moral grounds without delay. “Without his resignation, a fair investigation into the matter is not possible. The SIT set up by the government cannot be trusted, because earlier in case ranging from mining scam, to DSP’s murder, Haryana has seen how cases were suppressed in the name of SIT,” he stated.
“Covering up the murder of DSP in Nuh, the SIT limited the entire investigation to one driver. No action was taken on any big fish. In this government, SIT does not mean Special Investigation Team but has become Suppress the Internal Truth. In the matter of corruption and crime, the government always tried to suppress the truth,” he added.
Hooda termed the decision to end the power of Sarpanchs and hand over everything to e-tendering, as anti-democratic. He said the government does not faith in elected sarpanches, while it has faith in portals which have thousands of flaws. He added that the government is insulting the elected representatives by sidelining the Sarpanches