BJP has become ‘swami’, has made farmer ‘anath’, says Hooda

CHARKHIDADRI: Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son and Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda on Sunday resumed their ‘Kisan Panchayats’ by addressing a gathering of farmers here at Anaj Mandi.

Lashing out at the BJP government, Hooda said the saffron party rode to power on the promise of implementing the Swaminathan Committee report ensuring 50% of the profit to farmers. “However, three years into power, the BJP has become ‘swami’ (lord) and has made the farmer ‘anaath’ (orphan),” he said.

Attacking the Union government on its “misplaced” priorities, Hooda said the government could make entire farming community of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh debt-free by alloting them the budget of just one bullet train. “The total farm loan for the state of Madhya Pradesh and Haryana is 1,12,047 crore, roughly equal to the planned budget of a single bullet train,” Hooda said. KARNAL: As the Haryana government has failed to issue appointment letters to junior basic training (JBT) teachers in the state, the aspiring teachers have resumed their protest.

In July, they had ended their month-long protest in Karnal after getting an assurance from the state government that they will be issued joining letters by August 15. The protesting teachers said the state government has failed to keep its promise and they have to resume the agitation.

The teachers are using all tactics to grab the attention and on Sunday they protested by putting a rope in their neck.

More than 1,200 aspiring JBT teachers were left out after the Punjab and Haryana high court had directed the state government to prepare a combined merit list of eligible candidates who had cleared the Haryana Teacher Eligibility Test (HTET) in 2011 and 2013 and appointed 9,455 candidates.

“We had to resume the protest as the government has failed to keep its promise. Additional director of state elementary education department Virender Dahiya assured us that we will get joining letters by August 15,” said a protester.

However, on July 27, Dahiya visited Karnal and appealed them to end the protest, saying that department has enough vacancies to accommodate 1,010 candidates as 963 candidates from the previous list had not joined and 85 were to join later.