Land deals: Session set to be stormy
A SLANGING MATCH BETWEEN THE RULING BJP, INDIAN NATIONAL LOK DAL, WHICH IS THE PRINCIPAL OPPOSITION GROUP IN THE ASSEMBLY AND THE CONGRESS IS EXPECTED OVER A SERIES OF CBI CASES AGAINST FORMER HARYANA CM HOODA
CHANDIGARH: The upcoming Haryana assembly session is likely to be a slugfest between the opposition and treasury benches on controversial landrelated matters. The 2018-19 budget will be presented in the assembly session beginning March 5.
While the business advisory committee of the House will formally fix the schedule of the session, a provisional schedule sent by the chief secretary’s office indicates the budget session to be a 10-day affair.
A slanging match between the ruling BJP, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which is the principal opposition group in the assembly and the Congress is expected over the a series of CBI cases against former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Most of the CBI probes are related to land acquisition and dropping of acquisition proceedings, allotment of plots.
The CBI on February 2 had submitted a chargesheet naming Hooda and some officers as accused in the Manesar land release case. While the Manesar land matter is unlikely to be discussed in detail, it being a subjudice matter, the ruling party will certainly try to put the former chief minister on the back foot by raking up other CBI cases.
The Congress too is gearing up to take on the treasury benches by bringing up “illegalities” committed by the BJP government in the land acquisition matters, in the House.
Former CM Hooda said they would speak up about the release of about 10,000 acres of land by the Manohar Lal Khattar government since 2014.
“The 3,600 acres being acquired for Manesar Bawal Investment Region was withdrawn from the acquisition process after the announcement of the award by the Khattar government causing a major setback to the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project. This cannot be done as per the law. The government needs to issue a white paper on the release of land since October 2014 when the BJP came to power in the state,” Hooda said.
The Congress leader said that failure of the state government to maintain law and order, registration of cases against the farmers, non fulfilment of prepoll promises, failure to bring investment and ever increasing unemployment are the issues on which the people of the state want an answer from the ruling BJP.
“They have done nothing except hold events day in and day out. In fact, it would not be wrong to call this government an event management company,” Hooda said. He added saying that he has convened a meeting of party MLAs at Delhi on Sunday.
INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala had recently said that they would raise the issue of non-completion of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in the assembly. “It’s ironical that no action has been taken by the BJP governments at the Centre and in Haryana for resumption of SYL construction despite a Supreme Court order,” Chautala said.
Chautala said they would also hold the Khattar government accountable on the huge expenditure incurred by the state exchequer on security arrangements for BJP president Amit Shah’s rally in Jind. “It was a party event and the government was not right in spending from state exchequer for it,” he had said.