Hooda trains guns at Khattar govt
CHANDIGARH: Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Wednesday said that girdawari conducted for assessing crop loss in Haryana was full of inconsistencies.
Training guns at the BJP government in the state, Hooda said that a case in point was Assandh assembly constituency where affected farmers in 73 villages did not get a single penny for crop loss.
Speaking to mediapersons on Wednesday, the two-time chief minister said it was surprising that the BJP regime in the state reduced state’s share in the calamity relief fund from `6400 to `4600. “Since the Centre increased its share in the fund from `3600 to `6400, it would have been in the interest of farmers even if the state government maintained its share,’’ he said.
Listing out several “anti-people and anti-farmer” steps of the BJP government, Hooda said that increase in the rate of value-added tax (VAT) on diesel, roll back of retirement age from 60 to 58 for state government employees, nonpayment of promised amount of social security pensions has made this government unpopular in such a short period. The BJP, he said, made 154 promises before the assembly elections in 2014, but failed to fulfil even a single one.
“People of the state, in fact, have become disillusioned with Manohar Lal Khattar government. The nine-month old government is not able to deliver at all and has proved to be a big disappointment,’’ the former chief minister said.
Hooda said that since the debt liability of the present government is set to increase, it means that the state government does not have paucity of funds. As per the budget estimates for 2015-16 financial year, the debt liability (short and long term loans, borrowings etc) is also set to increase by over `17,000 crore. While in 2013-14, it was about `71, 300 and rose to about 81,000 crore, approximately by `10,000 crore, the new government is looking at a jump of over `17,000 crore, he said. GOVT REACTION
Reacting to Hooda’s accusations, political advisor to the Haryana chief minister, Jagdish Chopra, said that the BJP government does not need a certificate from Hooda regarding interests of farmers. “Farmers of the state can themselves understand as to who are their actual well wishers. The crop was badly damaged due to untimely rains and hailstorm during March-April this year. The state government stood by farmers in this critical period and provide immediate relief to farmers in their hour of crisis,” ‘’ Chopra said in a statement.
“The government increased the compensation amount and released ` 1092.20 crore. Supplementing the efforts to compensate the farmers’ loss, the BJP government also released pending amount of compensation announced by the previous Congress government. During the last decades, politics was done in the name of farmers and they were given compensation cheques for ` 1 or ` 2 only,’’ he added.